The Conscience of a Conservative is Barry Goldwater's classic which re-ignited the American conservative movement and made him a political star. The term "Goldwater conservative" became a household word. The book has influenced countless conservatives in the United States, helping to lay the foundation for the Reagan Revolution.
Review
The book lays out, clearly and succinctly, [Goldwater's] uncompromising views. Goldwater held freedom as the highest value in American society: freedom from law, freedom from government, freedom from anybody else's vision but your own. You can argue with him on the particulars, but there's something compelling about his quintessentially American notion of self-reliance. (David Ulin Los Angeles Times )
The new Conscience of a Conservative takes what might be called the 'anti-fusionist' side in the Goldwater wars...The Conscience of a Conservative continues to be read today because it isn't a political tract, a soulless campaign book of the sort generated by every other modern presidential effort. (Daniel McCarthy The American Conservative )
Praise for the original edition: "Goldwater's conservatism is not isolationism, nor is it a cold-blooded commitment to the 'haves' as against the 'have-nots.' It is the creed of a fighter who has both a warm heart and a clear mind. (John Chamberlain Wall Street Journal )
Praise for the original edition: "There is more harsh fact and hard sense in this slight book than will emerge from all of the chatter of this year's session of Congress. . . . Sen. Goldwater is one of a handful of authentic conservatives. . . . [H]e has the clarity of courage and the courage of clarity. (George Morgenstern Chicago Tribune )
It is good that C.C. Goldwater brings us this new edition. It directs new attention to a political figure who, though fiery, was never mean-spirited or unfairly partisan. (Max J. Skidmore European Legacy )
From the Back Cover
With a New Introduction by Patrick J. Buchanan.
Here is the path-breaking book that rocketed a political philosophy into the forefront of the nation's consciousness, written in words whose vigor and relevance have not tarnished with age:
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not pass laws, but to repeal them. it is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' "interests," I shall replay that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am dong the very best I can.