This book presents the most significant speeches and writings of American constitutional conservatives during the period 1900-1930. Figures such as William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge, Elihu Root, Warren Harding, and David Jayne Hill present the alternative arguments that challenged the leading Progressive views of the period. Issues such as natural rights, civil rights, economic regulation, federalism, executive power, political parties, and foreign policy are addressed in these primary sources, many of which are reproduced for the first time. The readings in this book are relevant not only for understanding the political issues of the Progressive Era, but also for understanding the foundations of contemporary American conservatism.

“With familiar notions of political ‘conservatism’ now coming apart at the seams, it is a good time to think about those who laid much of the groundwork for it a century ago. Who better than Professors O’Neill and Postell to re-introduce us to those men and their ideas?” -- Adam J. White, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University
“A collection of marvels, most of them forgotten, all of them neglected, but each shedding light on the origins and challenges of modern American politics. Joseph Postell and Johnathan O’Neill have assembled an anthology of contemporaneous conservative responses to, and dissents from, the Progressive movement, the first wave of modern American liberalism. Their volume will be indispensable to a fair and more complete account of 20th century American history, which for generations has been told as the story of liberalism’s timely rise, inevitable triumph, and curious decline or, at least, frustration. This volume fills in a missing chapter of the story of 20th century conservatism, too, allowing readers to discover for themselves the pre-New Deal roots of the opposition to modern liberalism, to evaluate for themselves both the older conservatism’s fidelity to founding principles, and its relevance for the ongoing reinterpretation of American conservatism in the 21st century.” -- Charles Kesler, Claremont McKenna College

Joseph Postell is associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Johnathan O’Neill is professor of history at Georgia Southern University