Customer Reviews

In Defense of Freedom and Related Essays

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In this book, Frank Meyer attempts to consolidate two threads of conservative tradition (later referred to as fusionism) - that of libertarian conservatism (stressing individual rights and economic freedom); and that of natural or traditional conservatism (stressing virtue and order). Meyer makes the case (persuasively I believe) that while many in the conservative movement tend to stress one tradition over the other, there is no inherent mutual exclusion between them. In short, there ought not to be a rift between those that focus on different elements of the conservative tradition. Essentially, Meyer presents the individual (not community, not "society", and not the state) as the atomic unit. And from that unit radiates out all other constituent beliefs about the individual - the right to life, liberty, and property - including the freedom to pursue virtue as well as vice. Yet despite this valiant effort made by Meyer, the tension between the two traditions of conservatism still exist to this day. Those wishing to understand that tension in a historical context would certainly do well by reading this book. In any case, whether one agrees with Meyer's attempted fusion, In Defense of Freedom is a wonderful read in conservative expression.

Meyer was a former Communist, but he atoned for this by the many contributions he made to the anti-communist cause and to the conservative movement. The latter, I believe, owes an incalculable debt to him. Before 1960, Meyer, who was at the time a senior editor of National Review, began arguing that there was no inherent contradiction between the two major streams of the Right in America, free-market principles and traditional values.

        He further argued that if the conservative movement was going to succeed, adherents of both lines of thought, natural allies on most issues, must be fused together. Supporters of a conservative economic policy, he taught, couldn't expect their policies to be enacted without the backing of social-issue conservatives. And it was equally true, he continued, that social-issue conservatives couldn't expect their policies to be enacted unless they allied with economic conservatives.

         The presidential elections of 1980, 1984 and 1988, as well as the congressional elections of 1994 and 1996, were manifestations of the wisdom of Frank Meyer.

Without the freedom to choose what is moral, morality cannot exist.

Meyer calls for a fusion between social conservatives and libertarians, arguing that the morality praised by the social conservative may only be exercised when one is free to choose it.

In this sense, the libertarian and the conservative are only emphasizing two aspects of one greater morality: freedom and responsibility. He shows how, although emphasizing different priorities, they ultimately fight for the same thing against a common enemy: the collectivist liberal. The collectivist liberal presents a threat to the foundations of both morality and freedom.

This is one of my favorite books. It was my favorite book of 2007 and only got bumped to second place by one of Murray Rothbard's works. I highly recommend it.