Norman Stamps' short work should be better know as it is both concise and through. It presents the conservative arguments of classical western political thought and describes the dangers to democracy, including from communism. It appeared at a time when academic American political thought was strongly biased in favour of new 'leftist' liberal thinking and was accordingly overlooked as out of step with then current trends. It deserves to be re-considered in view of the decades of failing American ideology and the present state of American democracy.