An obituary so soon! Surely the reports of neoconservatism's death are greatly exaggerated. C. Bradley Thompson has written (with Yaron Brook) the most comprehensive and original analysis of neoconservatism yet published and in the process has dealt it a mortal blow. Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea reveals publicly for the first time what the neocons call their philosophy of governance--their plan for governing America. This book explicates the deepest philosophic principles of neoconservatism, traces the intellectual relationship between the political philosopher Leo Strauss and contemporary neoconservative political actors, and provides a trenchant critique of neoconservatism from the perspective of America's founding principles. The theme of this timely book--neoconservatism as a species of anti-Americanism--will shake up the intellectual salons of both the Left and Right. What makes this book so compelling is that Thompson actually lived for many years in the Straussian/neoconservative intellectual world. Neoconservatism therefore fits into the "breaking ranks" tradition of scholarly criticism and breaks the mold when it comes to informed, incisive, nonpartisan critique of neoconservative thought and action. (edited by author)
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This book is a must-read for all Americans interested in defending the founding fathers vision of a free and just society. --Glenn Beck
A novel and riveting account. . .that traces a tight arc from Leo Strauss through Irving Kristol to the daily travails of Washington politics. --Richard Epstein, University of Chicago
C. Bradley Thompson and Yaron Brook delve deeply into the origin, arc, and current nature of the neoconservative movement in the United States. Brilliant, deep, and told with authority. --Thom Hartmann, Air America Radio Network host
A novel and riveting account. . .that traces a tight arc from Leo Strauss through Irving Kristol to the daily travails of Washington politics. --Richard Epstein, University of Chicago
C. Bradley Thompson and Yaron Brook delve deeply into the origin, arc, and current nature of the neoconservative movement in the United States. Brilliant, deep, and told with authority. --Thom Hartmann, Air America Radio Network host
About the Author
C. Bradley Thompson is the BB&T Research Professor in the Department of Political Science at Clemson University and the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He is the author of the award-winning John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. He is also the editor of The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams and Antislavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader. Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He appears regularly on national TV and radio to discuss business, economic, and foreign policy issues. He has written and spoken extensively on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and on the role of neoconservatives in formulating that policy.
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48 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The subtitle of this intriguing and complex book is "An Obituary for an Idea." That subtitle is in part meant to be ironic, as the author, intellectual historian C. Bradley Thompson, explains on p. 2. In part, the subtitle of Thompson's book is ironic as a play on another title, _Socialism: An Obituary for an Idea_, which was written 34 years ago by the founder of the neoconservative intellectual movement in the United States, Irving Kristol (1920-2009).
When Kristol wrote his article, in 1976, was socialism actually dead? As a coherent ideology it was at least terminally ill. But, as we know today, the mortal remains of philosophical socialism have continued to wreck havoc even if the ideology as a whole has died.
Is neoconservatism in the same situation today? Herein lies another irony. The leading neoconservatives have denied that the neoconservative movement even has an ideology, which is a universal philosophy applied to a particular milieu. Neoconservatives instead have called their approach a "persuasion" or "mood," thus disarming serious critics.
Thompson -- the BB&T Research Professor in Political Science at Clemson University, the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, and the author of _John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty_ -- analyzes neoconservatism and then evaluates it from his own viewpoint, variously called laissez-faire capitalism, classical liberalism, Goldwater conservatism, and Jeffersonian republicanism. Throughout the book, Thompson uses that viewpoint as a foil, a radically different standard of comparison, when looking at the neoconservative philosophy and its political consequences.
A more descriptive title for Thompson's book might have been "Neoconservatism: Its Philosophical Nature, Historical Roots, and Poisonous Fruit." What Thompson finds in his studies of neoconservatism is that neoconservatives do indeed have not only an ideology for our time -- a financially sustainable welfare state at home and regime-building crusades abroad -- but a full philosophy underlying that ideology. Thompson summarizes his conclusions about the nature of the neoconservative ideology: "The neoconservative vision of a good America is one in which ordinary people work hard, read the Bible, go to church on Sunday, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, practice homespun virtue, sacrifice themselves to the 'common good', obey the commands of the government, fight wars, and die for the State."
Such an ideology, Thompson shows, goes against the grain of Americanism as a stream of Jeffersonian ideas such as individualism and government serving only as a night watchman, not as a shepherd of our lives in a collective.
For students of the history of ideas, as much as for today's political activists, this book does the "heavy lifting" required to reveal the deepest nature -- and therefore threat -- of the neoconservative movement, which is still very much alive.
When Kristol wrote his article, in 1976, was socialism actually dead? As a coherent ideology it was at least terminally ill. But, as we know today, the mortal remains of philosophical socialism have continued to wreck havoc even if the ideology as a whole has died.
Is neoconservatism in the same situation today? Herein lies another irony. The leading neoconservatives have denied that the neoconservative movement even has an ideology, which is a universal philosophy applied to a particular milieu. Neoconservatives instead have called their approach a "persuasion" or "mood," thus disarming serious critics.
Thompson -- the BB&T Research Professor in Political Science at Clemson University, the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, and the author of _John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty_ -- analyzes neoconservatism and then evaluates it from his own viewpoint, variously called laissez-faire capitalism, classical liberalism, Goldwater conservatism, and Jeffersonian republicanism. Throughout the book, Thompson uses that viewpoint as a foil, a radically different standard of comparison, when looking at the neoconservative philosophy and its political consequences.
A more descriptive title for Thompson's book might have been "Neoconservatism: Its Philosophical Nature, Historical Roots, and Poisonous Fruit." What Thompson finds in his studies of neoconservatism is that neoconservatives do indeed have not only an ideology for our time -- a financially sustainable welfare state at home and regime-building crusades abroad -- but a full philosophy underlying that ideology. Thompson summarizes his conclusions about the nature of the neoconservative ideology: "The neoconservative vision of a good America is one in which ordinary people work hard, read the Bible, go to church on Sunday, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, practice homespun virtue, sacrifice themselves to the 'common good', obey the commands of the government, fight wars, and die for the State."
Such an ideology, Thompson shows, goes against the grain of Americanism as a stream of Jeffersonian ideas such as individualism and government serving only as a night watchman, not as a shepherd of our lives in a collective.
For students of the history of ideas, as much as for today's political activists, this book does the "heavy lifting" required to reveal the deepest nature -- and therefore threat -- of the neoconservative movement, which is still very much alive.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was an eye-opener: little did I know of the illiberal philosophical roots of neoconservatism. Thompson and Brook provide first-class scholarship on Leo Strauss, the philosopher of neoconservatives such as Irving Kristol, showing Strauss' sympathy with Italian fascism. Who would have known that a cadre of talented Machiavellian Platonists could have insinuated themselves into the conservative movement and there substantially redefined conservative domestic and foreign policies. It is shocking to find how deep is neocon antipathy to the Jeffersonian, natural rights, Enlightenment roots of the United States.
Conservatives who consider the founding fathers their touchstone must read this book. Liberals curious about the roots of these influential thinkers in the conservative ranks must read this book.
Conservatives who consider the founding fathers their touchstone must read this book. Liberals curious about the roots of these influential thinkers in the conservative ranks must read this book.
29 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By Gideon Reich
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
C. Bradley Thompson (with Yaron Brook) has written a rigorous and detailed analysis of the ideas neoconservatism, including neoconservatism's founder Irving Kristol and Kristol's main intellectual influence, namely Leo Strauss. Thompson takes us back to the origin of the neoconservative movement with Kristol's life-changing (for Kristol) book review Leo Strauss's "Persecution and the Art of Writing" in Commentary magazine in the 1950s. The details and nature of the Straussian philosophy are also covered, including its simultaneous enthusiasm for Platonic idealism and Machiavellian pragmatism. Thompson and Brook then discuss how these ideas translate into the policies, both foreign and domestic, that the neoconservatives have been advocating and supporting over the last few decades and most recently in the Iraq war. Over the course of ten chapters Thompson unmasks neoconservatism as, despite many appearances to the contrary, "a unique species of Anti-Americanism." The book demonstrates that the neocons are in theory and practice opposed to the ideas of the American founding, including individual rights, limited government, and laissez-faire capitalism. Instead the neoconservatives support a kind of "soft-despotism" that is more akin to fascism than Americanism. Highly recommended, particularly for those who do support the real principles of Americanism!
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