I just finished The Death of Conservatism by Sam Tanenhaus/a>

A waste of $15 IMHO. He wrote this when Obama was flying high and the vultures were circling. Too bad for him the lifeless corpse is not so lifeless now. It was interesting to see how he attempted to link the various conservatives together, but otherwise he failed to convince me. I refuse to believe conservatism is dead, not even close.

If you want a good read, try this one:
The American Future: A History by Simon Schama

I love his History of Britain books as well. A very good writer.