Edmund Fawcett, who wrote a book on Liberalism (you can read my review here), gives equal time to Conservatism. Fawcett sees these two political movements as Yin and Yang. They need each other and they also tend to counteract the other’s worst tendencies.

“Liberals, to schematize, embraced capital modernity. Conservatives responded by opposing the liberal embrace. The first liberals welcomed capitalism and critical thought, the twin turbines of a modern change. Liberals favored freer markets, moveable labor, and the self-generative force of money. They embraced religious indifference and social and cultural diversity, as well as the constructive power of disagreement.” (p. 42).

Conservatives resist change and embrace Tradition. “Popular distrust of higher education on the right is accordingly encouraged by conservative politicians. In 2016, Trump mocked universities for taking $200,000 of parents’ money to teach their children ‘zombie studies’ and how ‘to hate our country.’ ” (p. 371) The Right is also wary of experts. It’s painful to watch the ignorance of Rand Paul and Jim Jordan when they try to argue with Dr. Fauci.

If you want to understand the dynamics of Conservatism and where it is likely to go in the years ahead, I highly recommend Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition (2020). GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Part I Conservatism’s Forerunners

1 Critics of Revolution 3

i The Hard Authority of Punishment and Soft Authority of Custom: Maistre and Burke 3

ii The Call of Faith and Beauty: Chateaubriand 18

iii Order in Nations and among Nations: Gentz 25

iv Revolution to Prevent Revolution: Madison 31

v What the Critics Left to Conservatism 36

Part II What Conservatism Is

2 Character, Outlook, and Labelling of Conservatism 41

i Conservatism as a Political Practice 41

ii The Conservative Outlook 48

iii Conservative and Liberal Outlooks Contrasted 50

iv Bonding Spaces for Conservatives with Liberals 54

v The Adaptability of Conservative Ideas 56

vi “Conservatism,” “the Right” and Other Label Troubles 58

vii Dilemmas for Conservatives 62

viii Fighting for a Tradition 65

Part III Conservatism’s First Phase (1830-80): Resisting Liberalism: The Year 1830 71

3 Parties and Politicians: A Right without Authority 72

i Improvisations of the French Right 74

ii The British Right’s Divided Heart: Peel or Disraeli 80

iii German Conservatives without Caricature 88

iv United States: Whigs and Jacksonians; Republicans and Democrats 96

4 Ideas and Thinkers: Turning Reason against Liberalism 108

i Constitutions for Unacceptable Ends: Calhoun 111

ii Reason for the Right Replaces Nostalgia: Stahl 117

iii How Conservatives Should Defend Religion: Lamennais, Ketteler, Newman, Brownson, and Hodge 124

iv Conservatism’s Need for Intellectuals: Coleridge’s Clerisy 137

v Against Liberal Individualism: Stephen, Gierke, and Bradley 141

Part IV Conservatism’s Second Phase (1880-1945): Adaptation and Compromise: The Year 1880 159

5 Parties and Politicians: Authority Recovered and Squandered 160

i The Moderate Right in France’s Third Republic 164

ii British Conservatives Adapt 175

iii The Ambivalence of German Conservatives 186

iv The American Nonexception 194

6 Ideas and Thinkers: Distrust of Democracy and of Public Reason 205

i Defending Capitalism: Mallock, Sumner, and Schumpeter 207

ii Six Ways to Imagine the People: Treitschke, he Bon, Du Camp, Adams, Mencken, and Sorel 221

iii Cultural Decline and Ethical Anomie: Junger and Other Germans, Drieu la Rochelle, the Southern Agrarians, and Eliot 242

iv Funeral Oratory for Liberal Democracy: Schmitt and Maurras 255

Part V Conservatism’s Third Phase (1945-80): Political Command and Intellectual Recovery: The Year 1945 267

7 Parties and Politicians: Recovering Nerve and Rewinning Power 269

i Normality, Pride, and Rage in France: Pinay, de Gaulle, and Poujade 271

ii Tory Wets and Dries in Britain: Macmillan to Thatcher 277

iii Remaking the German Middle Ground: Adenauer and Christian Democracy 282

iv The US Right Divided: Eisenhower-Taft, Rockefeller-Goldwater, Ford-Reagan 288

8 Ideas and Thinkers: Answering Liberal Orthodoxies 295

i Herald of the Hard Right: Powell 297

ii Our Conservative Second Nature: Gehlen 300

iii The Liberal Moderns’ Fall from Grace: Weaver, Voegelin, and MacIntyre 305

iv Winning the US Stage: Kirk, Buckley, and Kristol 315

Part VI Conservatism’s Fourth Phase (1980-The Present): Hyper-Liberalism and the Hard Right: The Year 1980 327

9 Parties and Politicians: Letting in the Hard Right 328

i The Center-Right in the 1980s and 1990s 329

ii The Rise of the Hard Right: The Le Pens, AfD, Brexit, and Trump 339

iii The Theme Music of the Hard Right: Decline, Capture, Enemies, and Victimhood 349

iv What Populism Is and Isn’t 354

10 Ideas and Thinkers: Yes or No to a Hyper-liberal Status Quo 362

i Right-Wing Liberals, Antiglohalists, and Moral-Cultural Conservatives 364

ii The Hard Right in the American Grain: Buchanan, the Paleos, and Dreher 367

iii The New Voices of the Right in Germany and France 374

iv Three Unreconciled Thinkers: Finnis, Scruton, and Sloterdijk 383

v For the Status-Quo: Pragmatism, the Via Media, Anxiety, or “Realism” 406

Coda: Choices for the Right 415

Appendix A Conservative Keywords 419

Appendix B Philosophical Sources of Conservative Thought 424

Appendix C Conservative Lives: A Gazetteer 428

Works Consulted 467

Index of Names 495

Index of Subjects 507