Willmoore Kendall

Willmoore Kendall: Maverick of American Conservatives provides the first book-length study of a man long regarded as a founding father of American intellectual conservatism. This edited collection brings together a diverse range of perspectives on Kendall's life and work and places the post-World War II political theorist in the context of modern American conservatism. Far from providing a monolithic view of Kendall's thought, the contributions illuminate an unconventional, often contradictory, thinker. The book traces the development of Kendall's body of political thought from his early years in Oxford, through his work on John Locke, to the later speculation that produced The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition , and analyzes the influence of Leo Strauss on his later work. Including, for the first time in print, the complete correspondence between Kendall and Strauss that significantly shaped Kendall's later work, Willmoore Kendall is a vital contribution to American intellectual history.

“Willmoore Kendall: Maverick of American Conservatives leaves no room for doubt as to the rare quality of Kendall's soul. It is a moving account of the limitations and virtues of conservatism.”

The essays in this book capture Willmoore Kendall's unique qualities as a teacher, scholar, and human being. -- Austin Ranney, former president of the American Political Science Association
Kendall's temperament is part of his story. Whether the intersections are traceable in his arguments, and in his intellectual narrative, can't be confidently established, but it is accepted that his temperament hugely affected his career and his productivity. -- William F. Buckley Jr., National Review
Willmoore Kendall: Maverick of American Conservatives leaves no room for doubt as to the rare quality of Kendall’s soul. It is a moving account of the limitations and virtues of conservatism. Policy Review
This superb collection of essays (including Kendall's 18-year correspondence with Leo Strauss) is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the meaning of American conservatism and Kendall's lifelong dedication to making sense of this tradition. -- Grant Havers, Trinity Western University
I think [Willmoore Kendall's] "deliberate sense" account of the American political tradition is correct, plainly set forth by our eighteenth-century founders but also reaching back in time to centuries of English experience and common law. -- Jeffrey Hart The New Criterion

John A. Murley is Professor of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is the coeditor of the two-volume Essays in Law and Philosophy: On The Practice of Theory (1992) and Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999). John E. Alvis is Professor of English and Director of American Studies at the University of Dallas. He is the author of a number of works including Divine Purpose and Heroic Response in Homer and Virgil: The Political Plan of Zeus (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995).

Willmoore Kendall: Maverick of American Conservatives provides the first book-length study of a man long regarded as a founding father of American intellectual conservatism. This edited collection brings together a diverse range of perspectives on Kendall's life and work and places the post-World War II political theorist in the context of modern American conservatism. Far from providing a monolithic view of Kendall's thought, the contributions illuminate an unconventional, often contradictory, thinker. The book traces the development of Kendall's body of political thought from his early years in Oxford, through his work on John Locke, to the later speculation that produced The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition , and analyzes the influence of Leo Strauss on his later work. Including, for the first time in print, the complete correspondence between Kendall and Strauss that significantly shaped Kendall's later work, Willmoore Kendall is a vital contribution to American intellectual history.

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