The Conscience of a Conservative

The Conscience of a Conservative

Cover of the first edition
Author	Barry Goldwater (nominal)
Subject	Politics, American conservatism
Publisher	Victor Publishing Co. [name used by Frank E. Simon, manager of the real publisher, viz., Publishers Printing Company, Shepardsville, Ky]
Publication date	1960
Media type	Print
Pages	123
OCLC	1002492

The Conscience of a Conservative is a 1960 book published under the name of Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. It reignited the American conservative movement, made Goldwater a political star, and has influenced countless conservatives in the United States, helping to lay the foundation for the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s.

The book was ghostwritten by L. Brent Bozell Jr., brother-in-law of William F. Buckley Jr.. Bozell and Buckley had been members of Yale's debate team. They had co-authored the controversial book, McCarthy and His Enemies, in 1955. Bozell had been Goldwater's speechwriter in the 1950s, and was familiar with many of his ideals.

The 123 page book covers such topics as education, labor unions and policies, civil rights, agricultural policy and farm subsidies, social welfare programs, and income taxation. The book is considered to be a significant statement of politically and economically American conservative ideas which were to gain influence during the following decades.

The book, and its pithy title, continue to inspire contemporary political commentary.

A half-century edition, edited by C.C. Goldwater (his granddaughter), with a foreword by George Will, and an afterword by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, was published by the Princeton University Press in 2007.