Synopsis

For the fifth anniversary of American Compass, the conservative think tank hailed by the Wall Street Journal as \"the forefront of rethinking traditional conservative economic ideas,\" comes a collection of its best, most influential writingAmerican Compass is the nerve center of the New American Right, the strategists and policy experts navigating a new Republican path through the economic issues shaping today’s political landscape—trade and immigration, technology and finance, industrial policy, education, welfare, labor, family, and more. The New Conservatives is the organization’s ur-text, a collection of its most influential writing on why and how true conservative government fosters markets that serve society—not the other way around. As The Economist put it, American Compass is “a slaughterhouse for Republican sacred cows.” With essays and manifestos by American Compass founder Oren Cass, New America co-founder Michael Lind, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Affairs founding editor Yuval Levin, American Affairs founding editor Julius Krein, author and former American Conservative senior editor Helen Andrews, and Comment senior editor Brian Dijkema, The New Conservatives breaks down America’s economic and political failures before drawing upon a re-assessed American conservative tradition to prove how an innovative conservative movement, breaking from the GOP’s free-market dogmatism, is defined by three pillars—productive markets, supportive communities, and responsive politics. The book explores American Compass’ groundbreaking projects, like the Cost-of-Thriving Index, which explains how the typical American worker could once provide a family with middle-class security on 40 weeks of work but now requires more than 60—a problem, there being 52 weeks in a year. It refines the American conservative tradition, which most people today wrongly assume emphasized free markets and limited government, reminding readers that the early American republic pursued a robust national economic policy with high protective tariffs and intensive public investment. It offers new conservative critiques of modern markets that have failed to deliver on capitalism’s promise that globalization, cheap labor, and financial markets will deliver widespread prosperity. And it sets capitalism’s sights on community: re-calibrating a right-of-center attitude toward families, worker power and solidarity, and higher education. The New Conservatives, published in celebration of American Compass’ fifth anniversary, is a conservative manifest, a ship’s log, and an updated nautical chart to an economy in which free markets are not an end unto themselves, but are rather a means to an end—national liberty and prosperity—steered by public policy.

About The Author

Oren Cass emerged as a leading public intellectual with the 2018 publication The Once and Future Worker, a groundbreaking reassessment of economic policy lauded across the political spectrum and around the world: “among the most important I’ve ever read” (J.D. Vance),“the essential policy book for our time” (Yuval Levin), “thoughtful, provocative, carefully argued” (Jason Furman). Cass writes monthly columns for both The New York Times and The Financial Times as well as a twice-weekly Substack with close to 10,000 subscribers, and hosts the weekly American Compass Podcast. He has also published essays within the past two years in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, First Things, Public Discourse, Law & Liberty, and Compact. Prior to founding American Compass, Cass worked as a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was elected vice president and treasurer of the Harvard Law Review and oversaw the journal’s budget and operations. While still in law school, he also became Domestic Policy Director for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, editing and producing the campaign’s “jobs book” and developing its domestic policy strategy, proposals, and research.American Compass is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to shaping a balanced and prosperous future for America by revitalizing the nation’s economic policy framework. Founded in 2020 by Oren Cass, the organization challenges conventional wisdom and champions innovative solutions that prioritize the well-being of American families, workers, and communities. Guided by the principle that markets should serve society—not the other way around—American Compass works to restore a sense of shared purpose and economic stability in a rapidly changing world. Through rigorous research, thought-provoking commentary, and strategic collaborations, American Compass provides a platform for policymakers, academics, and industry leaders to engage in meaningful dialogue about the challenges facing the modern economy. Its work addresses critical issues such as job creation, industrial policy, family stability, and the role of government in fostering economic resilience.