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From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

*Starred Review* A bohemian musician as a young man, Brooks was stunned when friends branded him a conservative because of his faith in democratic capitalism. Decades later, Brooks proudly embraces that label. Indeed, as president of the American Enterprise Institute a prestigious right-leaning think tank he tirelessly evangelizes for the conservative cause. That cause, he argues, suffers from an undeserved reputation as a coldly calculating pursuit of economic self-interest. As Brooks understands it, conservatism actually springs from profoundly humanizing concerns. Liberals may claim the rhetoric of social justice, but this polemicist feels that it is conservative principles that actually deliver the substance. The free market, he explains, creates the jobs that give ordinary people the dignity of employment and the opportunity to get ahead, while traditional morality protects them within a stable community. But Brooks fears that conservatives will seldom translate their principles into government policies unless they break through negative stereotypes by recapturing Ronald Reagan's gift for delivering upbeat yet unabashedly moral appeals focused on ordinary people's concerns. Liberals will naturally resist Brooks' line of reasoning. But then Brooks urges conservatives to break out of their insularity by civilly engaging their ideological adversaries. So attracting even readers who frown with disapproval advances the author's agenda.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2015 Booklist