Dark at the end of the tunnel: John Derbyshire, America's foremost reactionary, is entertainingly glum about the conservative movement and his fellow man.

• Author: Frank, T.A.
• Position: We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism - Book review

We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism

by John Derbyshire

Crown Forum, 272 pp.

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If you've never been offended by John Derbyshire, then you probably aren't Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Latino, black, liberal, Arab, Asian, French, Irish, female, African, lesbian, or gay. Or else you just haven't been paying attention. Best known as a regular contributor to National Review, Derbyshire may be the foremost reactionary of our times. But he's also inquisitive and forthright, with an aversion to cant from right as well as left. If Derbyshire's a crank--well, he is a crank--he's also self-aware and, often, very funny. This makes him rather like a valued but embarrassing friend--great one-on-one, even if you can't take him anywhere.

It goes without saying that Derbyshire rubs liberals the wrong way, not least because half of what he writes seems calculated to rile them up as much as possible. This gains him notoriety (as when he suggested that Barack Obama might just be "Al Sharpton minus the pompadour and the attitude"), but at a cost. A stewed pensioner at the corner pub can be entertaining, but most people will miss anything important he has to say.

And Derbyshire does have some significant things to say. While few of them can be considered unique in the universe of ideas, rarely do they come together in one individual. To sum up Derbyshire's worldview, it might be described as one of nature over nurture, tribalism over internationalism, science over superstition (including religion, especially creationism), isolationism over interventionism, and Calvin Coolidge over FDR. Think H. L. Mencken, and then make pretty much zero adjustment for the passage of time. That makes Derbyshire an unusual voice in the debate over the soul of conservatism today. And even liberals, provided they have a tolerance for provocation, are likely to find him stimulating.

Now Derbyshire has come out with his first book-length work on politics. (He previously published a novel and two popularized histories of math.) Entitled We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism, Derbyshire's book makes a simple argument: pessimism about human potential is the key to a better tomorrow. Or at least a not-so-much-worse tomorrow, which is better than nothing.

Unfortunately, says Derbyshire, healthy pessimism has all but vanished from American society. Conservatism, pessimism's last best hope, has fallen prey to wishful thinking. As a result, while the...