The Voting System

Each panelist selected their top five books on American Conservatism. They then chose five favourite books from a master list of all the other panellist' five book choices.

How does the scoring work?
Books receive two stars if they were selected as an original FiveBooks choice.

Books receive one star if they were selected by another panellist from the master list.

The Panelists

Karl Rove

The former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to George W Bush argues about the importance of putting Compassion back into Conservatism.

Mitch Daniels

In this interview, which helps define an emerging political figure, possible Presidential Contender for 2012 Mitch Daniels plants himself firmly on the dynamist, anti-traditionalist side of the conservative divide.

Brink Lindsey

The Vice-President for Research at the Cato Institute argues that modern Conservatism is being driven by an historically unlikely coalition of libertarians and traditionalists.

Daniel Finkelstein

The Executive Editor at The Times Newspaper in London argues that a concept of fairness needs to be at the heart of any modern Conservative outlook.

Sam Tanenhaus

The Editor of The New York Times Book Review explains how the American right reinvented itself as a cultural counter-revolution.

Peter Berkowitz

Too often, argues the Hoover Institution scholar, universities are places where small orthodoxies elbow aside big ideas; too many Americans are embarrassed to talk about morality in terms of virtue and character, not just rules and intentions. We need to remember that freedom isn't value-free.

Grover Norquist

The leading Conservative strategist and Head of Americans for Tax Reform argues that liberals actively undermine what makes America great.

David Frum

The CNN columnist and former speechwriter for George W Bush explains the need for the American Right to rediscover the unsentimental realism that it pioneered.

E J Dionne

The columnist for the Washington Post and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute questions what has happened to the intellectual humility that led to the growth of American Conservatism.

Yuval Levin

The Founder and Editor of National Affairs Magazine speculates how the founding fathers of Conservatism might have been nervous about Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement.