If you were looking for a succinct and well-written primer on traditional American conservatism and the enduring values of the American Founders, you would be hard pressed to do better than The American Cause by Russell Kirk. Henry Regnery originally published this short work in 1957 during the early days of the Cold War. It was later republished in 1966 in the heart of the revolutionary 1960's. The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has recently decided to again publish this short but timely work. Kirk scholar, and speechwriter for former Michigan Governor John Engler, Gleaves Whitney has edited the volume and provided an introduction and afterword. The original work had a heavy emphasis on communism and the communist threat that was appropriate to its time. Whitney has seen to abbreviate or generalize some of the focus on communism as such. This helps to preserve the meat of the book and to limit the distraction of dated political issues. Much discussion remains about communism as an ideology but Whitney's editing prevents the work from being seen as merely an anti-communist polemic. The result is a book that is still very pertinent to today's conflicts. In fact, Kirk's succinct description of American exceptionalism remains one of the most clearly written and eloquently argued synopses of traditional conservatism around.
Kirk's goal in writing the book was in fighting ignorance about American values and ideals. Obviously this was a concern during the Cold War but his warning applies equally today:

Fanatic ideologues in our time have drawn their strength from faith in their ideas, evil though most of their ideas have been. When revolutionaries willing to lay down their life for their movement have more faith in their ideology than we have in our ancient principles, and when anti-American ideologies on college campuses can bewilder even American university students by their arguments, then our American cause is in peril.

The heart of the book focuses on the three bodies of principles that serve to guide our lives and nation: our moral, political, and economic convictions. It is out of these principles that civilization grows. The goal of conservatism is to defend our civilization from decay and decadence, from a weakening of our principles. It is the defense of these principles that Kirk labels "the American cause."

Kirk outlines the impact of Christian belief on American history and situates our moral convictions in Judeo-Christian theism. Kirk lists three key ingredients: "the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the dignity of man." Out of this belief in God as the creator and sustainer of life flows the dignity and natural rights of mankind. But life on earth is not paradise; instead we live in a fallen world. As a result this life is not an end in itself but rather a place of trial and struggle - perfection will not be attained in this world. Because of their belief in a fallen and limited human nature - in original sin - Americans have avoided both religious utopianism and intoleration to a degree not found elsewhere. Kirk notes the unique America perspective: "We are a Christian nation that observes religious principles in its public acts, though enforcing religious convictions on no one." One of the major factors in America's religious toleration has been it's understand of the difference between moral and positive law:

[W]e do not often attempt to regulate by law the complexities of private morality. In America, a man may stay within the law and yet do considerable number of immoral things. He may lie, seduce, neglect his duties, waste his life, denounce God, and yet run small risk of ever going to prison . . . We restrict the operation of our positive laws to those essential matters of public security that cannot be neglected without immediate danger to the whole fabric of civilized society.

In the political arena Kirk outlines three important ideas in Western thought: justice, order, and freedom. It is the unique balancing of these three ideas that gives America its "order liberty." Kirk defines justice as "the principle and process by which each man is accorded the things that are his own - the things that belong to his nature." It is the first necessity of any decent society. The American view of justice is also unique. Justice is not seen as some cosmic and perfect equality. Rather it is the limited right of each man to pursue his nature as long as he does not infringe on the rights of his neighbor. This is justice before the law not equality of condition. Kirk provides a vivid description:

In the just state, the energetic man is protected in his rights to the fruits of his endeavors; the contemplative man, in his right to study and leisure; the propertied man, in his rights of inheritance and bequest; the poor man, in his rights to decent treatment and peaceful existence; the religious man, in his rights to worship; the craftsman, in his right to work. The just state, in short, will endeavor to ensure that no one shall take from another man what properly belongs to his personality, his station in life, and his material interests.

This type of justice does not seek the crushing uniformity of equality of condition but rather revels in the variety and natural talents of human beings.