In 1953, Russell Kirk published “The Conservative Mind,” a massive and comprehensive review of conservative thought, placing the ideas of philosophers like Edmund Burke and Jeremy Bentham into the context of classical liberalism and its competitors in the marketplace of ideas, including Marxism, socialism, pragmatism and religious philosophies.  This is a more accessible version of that doorstop of a book, originally published in 1957, now with an easy-to-grasp introduction by historian Wilfred M. McClay.  An excellent primer on the intellectual roots of conservativism.