Dr Medearis is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Schumpeter's Two Theories of Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2000). Dr Meadowcroft is Lecturer in Public Policy at King's College London and the author of The Ethics of the Market (Palgrave, 2005) and co-author of Rescuing Social Capital from Social Democracy (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2007).

"The volumes in this timely series comprise the most comprehensive body of material on conservative and libertarian thought yet published in a single project devoted to the subject. The series will prove an indispensable tool not only for those concerned with the history of political thought but also for those who confront the challenging task of constructing a viable contemporary conservative identity. Professor Meadowcroft had a difficult editorial task, to which he has responded with a judicious choice of thinkers and topics."Noel O'Sullivan, Professor of Political Philosophy, the University of Hull, UK.

• Series Introduction; Series Editor's Preface; Author's Preface; Chapter 1. Life; The Shaping of a Young Austro-Hungarian Conservative, 1883-1913; War, Fragmentation and "Tory Democracy," 1914-1918; Conservatism after the Old Regime: Ventures Political, Commercial and Scholarly, 1919-1932; Conservatism after the Old Regime: New Continent, New Contentions, 1932-1950; Chapter 2. Critical Exposition; Equilibrium Economics; Innovation and Creative Destruction; The Capitalist Order: The Tax State, Imperialism and Social Classes; The Tax state; Imperialism; Classes; Schumpeter as a Conservative Thinker; The Capitalist Order's "Crumbling Walls"; Democracy; Chapter 3. Influence; Schumpeter, Hayek and Polanyi on the Prospects of Capitalism and Socialism; How Historical Lags Shaped Schumpeter's Influence; Elite Democracy; Innovative Capitalism; Tax States; Atavistic Empires; Functional Classes; Economic Sociology; Chapter 4. Relevance; Democratic Theory Appropriations; Conservative Appropriations; Bibliography; Index.