Member of the Week: Peter Redpath (VP of Student Division, The Federalist Society)

Every Thursday, CBC will highlight a Conservative Book Club “Member of the Week” who’s doing great things in the conservative movement at home or in our nation’s capitol.

Name: Peter Redpath
Organization: The Federalist Society
Title: Vice President & Director, Student Division

Congratulations Peter on being the inaugural Conservative Book Club “Member of the Week!” Tell us a little about yourself and the work you do at The Federalist Society – the country’s leading conservative law society.

In my role as Vice President & Director of the Student Division at The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies, I manage the programming of over 200 law school chapters, advancing conservative and libertarian ideas on campuses throughout the country through our debates, panels, and speeches. Basically, my job is to try to get the ideas of freedom, federalism, separation of powers, and judicial restraint a fair hearing in places they’re sometimes not being heard.

No small feat! What got you interested in the work you do?

In my Senior year of college, I picked up Judge Robert Bork’s The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law. I may have been a little late to the party at that point, but reading it was a game changer for me, and I realized I needed to make this fight my own.

What books, authors, or conservative-themed books, influenced your political philosophy and outlook on life?

In addition to Judge Bork’s writing, I’m a big fan of the recently departed M. Stanton Evans’ The Theme Is Freedom: Religion, Politics, and the American Tradition and Robert Nisbet’s The Quest for Community, as well as Robert George’s The Clash of Orthodoxies. I continue to use The Heritage Guide to the Constitution by Matthew Spalding & David Forte as a resource on a regular basis and was excited to see the brand new updated edition. Many of the brightest legal minds in the country contributed to guide, and it’s a particularly handy tool in my line of work.

Why did you join the Conservative Book Club? How is the user experience beneficial to you?

Actually, I just signed up at CPAC a few weeks ago. Conservative Book Club fell off of my radar, so it’s nice to see the re-launch. It’s nice to have a resource out there where a trusted community of users can recommend what you should be reading. And it’s a wonderful tool of discovering some books that you’re not already aware of. For example, I just ordered a children’s book called The Remarkable Ronald Reagan by Susan Allen and a Peanuts book called What’s the Big Idea, Charlie Brown? by Charles Schulz for my nephews and both were big hits. I just spotted a good upcoming Mother’s Day present for Mom, too: The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After by Elizabeth Kantor. Thanks in advance to CBC for scoring me some points with Mom!

You are very welcome! That’s what we’re here for. Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with your fellow members?

Check out the CBC. It’s free after all, and there’s no obligation to buy any books, and it links you to Amazon or Barnes & Noble, where most of us are already buying books. More importantly it links you to a community of fellow conservatives who have some good suggestions for what you should be reading. And of course, go read some Bork!

Tags: Federalist Society, Member of the Week, Peter Redpath