Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) admits that political conservatives have often failed to present a comprehensive vision of the underlying commitments and convictions that frame the conservative vision. Beyond this, he laments the fact that some conservatives fail to link those basic convictions with political decisions and matters of public policy. He's out to reverse that failure, and his new book It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good is one of the most important books written by a political figure in recent American history.

Santorum was raised in Butler, Pennsylvania, a small town he describes as "a place where family togetherness, being a good neighbor, and civic participation were on display every day, without complaint or apology." He later attended college at Penn State University and earned a law degree from the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. At the age of 32, Santorum was elected to the United States House of Representatives. After two terms, he was elected in 1994 to the United States Senate. He quickly emerged as a national figure and became the youngest person elected to the Republican Senate leadership. He continues to serve as Republican Conference Chairman, the party's third-ranking leadership position in the Senate.

Nevertheless, Santorum is defined as much by his family life as by his political career. He and his wife Karen have six children, and the couple has been very generous in sharing their family life with the larger public.

This is no accident, nor a matter of mere personal eccentricity. In It Takes a Family, Santorum points to the natural family as the basic building block of civilization, as the proper focus of government concern, and as the true starting point for a conservative political philosophy.

Santorum argues that civilization is based upon five essential pillars--social capital, economic capital, moral capital, cultural capital, and intellectual capital. In his book, he deals with each of these in turn, but at the center of his argument lies the assertion "that the key to building capital in all of these areas is fostering the formation, stability, and success of the traditional family."

This is a controversial book, and we are living in controversial times. Writing and publishing a book of this substance represents something of a political risk, but Santorum's book should serve to help conservatives, as well as others, come to a deeper understanding of why civilization itself depends upon the stable functioning of families, and why the family is now at risk.

Throughout the book, Santorum displays a rather remarkable engagement with significant conservative thinkers of the past and present. Furthermore, he gives evidence of a deep understanding of social realities and the ideological principles that produce concrete social results. This senator also understands that conservative principles have enemies.

Referring to what others have called the "cultural elite," Santorum speaks of the "village elders" who now attempt to forge a social revolution in terms of their own ideological commitments--commitments that are directly subversive of families.