..skepticism of the belief in a 'final' form of society in which all problems are solved as something that is actually attainable. Also humility and caution in pursuing solutions, since there are some costs that cannot be afforded. Collectivization and the stalinist terror come to mind.

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Many consider it to be the greatest single volume history of the United States(although restricted in scope) ever written, and I concur with that. It's a much needed antidote to the usual triumphalist narratives of American history.

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.. common good. There's a history I think you might appreciate. Daniel Walker Howe's 'What Hath God Wrought', a history of the US in the early 19th century read against the backdrop of the lost potentials represented by the destruction of the Federalist Party.

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The Federalists represent the superficial paradox of the kind of conservatism you speak of: they stood for an aristocratic republic, yet were deeply anti-slavery, committed to restraining settlers and honoring treaties with the indigenous peoples, and in using the power of the state to promote the..

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The United States never really developed a healthy conservative tradition. In the beginning, there was the Federalist Party, which was akin to a kind of Tory democracy, but it was strangled in the cradle by the Jeffersonian Revolution.

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