Rediscovering Black Conservatism

Rediscovering Black Conservatism, by Lee H. Walker, is a primer on black conservatism that explains the movement s ideas and profiles the people who did the most to advance them, often at great personal cost. Two central themes in the book are that conservatism is not a new phenomenon within black America, and that it is the source of powerful ideas that can finally solve some of the long-term social and economic problems facing black Americans today. The book explains how conservative ideas grew out of the black experience in America, and how their strongest advocate Booker T. Washington got airbrushed out of black history during the politically charged 1960s and 1970s. With the failure of the liberal welfare state during the 1980s and the the subsequent world-wide rise of free-market ideas, it s a good time to re-examine Washington's philosophy and its relevance to today's social and economic problems.