The Conscience of a Conservative

Written by Barry Goldwater

Narrated by Johnny Heller

When it was first published, The Conscience of a Conservative reignited the American conservative movement and made Barry Goldwater a political star. It influenced countless conservatives in the United States and helped to lay the foundation for the Reagan Revolution in 1980.



Just as vital today as it was then, this book addresses many topics that could be torn from today's headlines. Goldwater discusses education, labor unions and policies, civil rights, agricultural policy and farm subsidies, social welfare programs, and income taxation. This significant book lays out the conservative position both politically and economically that would come to dominate the Conservative Movement in America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452671246

Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater (1909-1998) was an American politician and businessman who was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953-1965, 1969-1987) and the Republican Party’s nominee for President of the United States in the 1964 election. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 2, 1909, the son of Baron M. Goldwater and his wife, Hattie Josephine “JoJo” Williams, he graduated from Staunton Military Academy, an elite private school in Virginia, and attended the University of Arizona for one year. Following his father’s death in 1930, he dropped out of college to work full-time at his family’s leading upscale department store in Phoenix. With the American entry into World War II, Goldwater received a reserve commission in the United States Army Air Forces. He became a pilot assigned to the Ferry Command, a newly formed unit that flew aircraft and supplies to war zones worldwide. He spent most of the war flying between the U.S. and India, and also over the Himalayas to deliver supplies to the Republic of China. After the war, he embarked on a political career, entering Phoenix politics in 1949, when he was elected to the City Council as part of a nonpartisan team of candidates pledged to clean up widespread prostitution and gambling. He then ran for a seat in the United States Senate in 1952, won, and went on to serve in the senate for 30 years, gaining recognition for his fiscal conservatism. Goldwater famously lost the 1964 campaign for the presidency to Lyndon B. Johnson in unprecedented landslide, but later ran for the senate again and won, serving from 1969 until his retirement in 1987. He died in Paradise Valley, Arizona, on May 29, 1998 at the age of 89.

Reviews for The Conscience of a Conservative

[14geronimo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An important little book. The cold warmonger pages (last section only) are outdated, but the rest of the book is a refreshing discourse, whether you agree or not is hardly the question. You just don't hear politicians speak like that anymore - and you won't be able to listen to them in the same way anymore either...

[Conrad Hawk · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Basically a campaign book that doesn’t hold up to the test of time.

[andyray_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Of these five tales, four of them are bone-chillingly good. My favorite is "Witches Hallow," and then the title piece. The only reason the book didn't earn the full five stars was that weak last story.

[jessica_brianne_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another great installment in the series about Jacky Faber, ship's boy, fine lady, privateer, and possible slave? This completely unbelievable adventure (really, how much trouble can one girl get into?) is highly entertaining. L. A. Meyer has no trouble keeping up the status quo with Jacky's misadventures and does not disappoint in the fourth book of the series.

[I Haps · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Boring. What a silly man. It's like any other book on conservatism.

[Civics And Critics · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

If, as purported, Goldwater’s thoughts encapsulates the ethos of modern conservatism, it is to be understood that through the litany of his hypocrisies and woefully flawed conclusions — those that have been both accepted and rejected reaching the same end — has led to the self implosion of the modern GOP where Goldwater’s arguments have not stood the test of time.

Because of of which, I only encourage the reading of his antiquated and confused thoughts in understanding how conservatism cannot and will be applicable beyond such delusions of grandeur wrought by a limited mind.