The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 [Paperback]

George H. Nash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

    

        First published in 1976, and revised in 1996, George H. Nash’s celebrated history of the postwar conservative intellectual movement has become the unquestioned standard in the field. This new edition, published in commemoration of the volume’s thirtieth anniversary, includes a new preface by Nash and will continue to instruct anyone interested in how today’s conservative movement was born.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When this book was first published in 1976, Ronald Reagan was a governor and Newt Gingrich a college professor. Today, it is the single best source of information on the intellectuals who built modern American conservatism. A new epilogue tries to bridge the gap of two decades, but this contemporary classic's real value lies in its thoughtful account of what happened in the 30 years following World War II. By combining history and political theory, it tells how a diverse group of thinkers that included William F. Buckley, Jr., Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Irving Kristol, Leo Strauss and others laid the philosophical groundwork for Reagan's presidency and Gingrich's speakership. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

    

        George H. Nash graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College and received his doctorate in history from Harvard University. He writes and lectures frequently about American conservatism. He is also the author of a three-volume life of Herbert Hoover.

Product Details

• Paperback: 660 pages
• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute; 30th anniversary edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933859121
• ISBN-13: 978-1933859125
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough and Thought-Provoking July 15, 2002

By Big Dave

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As someone who has come to conservatism at the end of the twentieth century, this book opened to me my own political prehistory, the thinking underlying conservative ideas. To some extent, it forced me to decide what kind of conservative I am.

The book is not strictly chronological in its discussion. Nash begins with one chapter apiece on each of the three principal strands of American conservatism post World War II: libertarianism, traditionalism, and anti-communism. Each strand is discussed chronologically and in terms of its principal proponents, leading works, publications, organizations, roots and, of course, theory.

Subsequent chapters discuss the efforts of these three groups to cooperate and to consolidate, the efforts to find specifically American roots for conservative ideas, and the growth of the conservative movement in the thirty years or so following 1945. An Epilogue written for the 1996 edition discusses subsequent changes in American conservatism, including neoconservatism and the religious right.

The title correctly identifies the subject matter of the book -- it is a history of an intellectual movement, and only secondarily a political history. Certain watershed events in contemporary conservatism (the McCarthy investigations, the election campaign of Barry Goldwater, and similar) are touched upon, but principally as phenomena to which conservatives react or by which they are shaped.

Highly recommended.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Continuation of Kirk's "Conservative Mind" History November 6, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I consider this book to be a continuation of the conservative history documented in Russell Kirk's "The Conservative Mind." Kirk covered from Edmund Burke to T.S. Eliot (i.e. from the American Revolution and into the New Deal) and Nash has covered from post-World War II to the mid-1970s (i.e. out of the New Deal; into and out of the Fair Deal, New Frontier and Great Society and into Stagflation and National Malaise). Nash has done a superb job of writing a cohesive and seamless history of the events, literature, people, struggles and ideas that contributed to the emergence of late 20th century conservative ascendance. The book is extremely well documented and is a virtual smorgasbord of bibliographic information for further study and examination. The revised synoptic epilogue doesn't do justice to the final culmination of conservative victory and I believe another historian will have to meet the challenge of finishing the story (or at least bringing it up to date). But it is going to be difficult for any author to do the stupendous job that Kirk and Nash have done in covering the conservative movement in America. The book is a must-read for conservatives and anyone else interested in the ascendancy of conservatism in America.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Understanding today's political environment October 12, 2005

By Jen Hlavacek, Ph.D.

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an excellent book that traces the historical development of the intellectual conservative movement in the United States. To understand current events, it is essential to understand the historical context from which today's political environment has sprung. It was interesting to me how the author distanced the "intellectual" movement from the right wing social conservatives of today. All political parties are made up of uncomfortable aliases and the present day Republican party is no exception to this rule. The author makes the necessary distinctions between that which is important to libertarians, traditional conservatives, and neoconservatives. I would especially recommend this book to anyone who is baffled by today's brand of conservative political thought.