Conservatives are often cast as anti-intellectual. Christopher J. Scalia’s new book lists thirteen must-read novels that will give that the lie.
“How can you be a conservative, when conservatism is so anti-intellectual?” That question was put to me by an Inside-the-Beltway executive with a progressive political bent.
Wow! What a question . . . But leaving aside the frank disdain for conservatives, I appreciated her query. If more people asked such candid questions of their political opposites, we’d be less stuck in our think-alike bubbles (and, perhaps, less polarized).
Speaking of bubbles: my interlocutor’s image of conservatives seemed to be a caricature of beer-swilling NASCAR enthusiasts, MAGA voters who read the New York Post but little else.
Many conservatives’ understanding of conservatism is the diametric opposite of hers. Rather than being anti-intellectual, we think of conservativism as an ideas-based movement, grounded in a long philosophical and literary heritage. We conservatives are the inheritors of the ideas of Locke, Hume, and Burke. Our policy proposals appear in long-form journals, with the author’s particular type of conservativism determining whether he’s published in National Affairs and The New Atlantis, The Claremont Review of Books, or Reason and The Independent Review. We read novels, with favorites also varying by particular conservative stripe, ranging from Kristin Lavransdatter to The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress to The Bonfire of the Vanities.
American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Christopher J. Scalia’s hot-off-the-presses book, 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love, accords with this conservative self-image. His book supports the idea that we are carrying forward a cultural inheritance, including novels as, in his words, “one of the greatest achievements of Western culture.”
Or . . . maybe not. Scalia book’s full title is 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (But Probably Haven’t Read). Conservatives may believe themselves intellectuals, but that may be too generous a self-appraisal. Conservatives, along with the rest of the country, have largely given up the habit of reading long books, especially among GenZ. Scalia worries that the list of novels that conservatives treat as touchstones has dwindled to The Lord of the Rings, 1984, Brideshead Revisited, and a handful of others.
Scalia, who began his career as professor of English, has set out to “restock the conservative bookshelf.” He devotes a chapter to each of the title’s thirteen books, beginning chronologically with Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759) and continuing to Christopher Beha’s The Index of Self-Destructive Acts (2020). Each chapter provides an on-ramp for reading the novel, with a sketch of the author and his or her circumstances, a description (without spoilers) of the plot, and an account of why the story provides grist for thought.
Scalia’s selections include a wide range of tales. Among them is Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop, a hilarious “send up of journalistic pretentions.” Scoop seems like a perfect book to pack for a long-weekend trip this summer, at a time when trust in news media is at rock bottom (and as CNN anchor Jake Tapper promotes his new book about President Biden’s decline, all while admitting he and his media colleagues didn’t ask tough questions about Biden’s health last year).
Scalia also recommends George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, a book weightier in both subject and in size than Scoop—this is no breezy holiday read. Focused on questions of Jewish identity, Zionism, and nationalism, this book couldn’t be more relevant in the wake of the October 7th attacks. I read Daniel Deronda perhaps two decades ago (full disclosure, I started it three times before I read it though). Thanks to Scalia, I’m putting this on my “reread soon” list.
If you want all thirteen titles, you must purchase the book (or watch the video of the book launch event at the American Enterprise Institute, where Scalia is a senior fellow). I encourage ordering the book—and then choosing from among his recommendations what to add to your reading list next.
