KEEPING THE TABLETS

The prime minister of Conservatism and a government professor at Claremont McKenna College (Cal.) co-edit a greatly revised version of American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century (1970; out of print). Retaining only a handful of essays from that work, Buckley and Kesler present, and offer thoughtful introductions to, 26 pieces covering the range of conservative political, economic, philosophic, and moral thought, by such conservative mavens as Russell Kirk, Milton Friedman, George Will, and Jeane Kirkpatrick. An excellent postscript suggesting "further reading"—from Plato to Saul Bellow—appends this intelligent collection.