The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945
by George H. Nash
List Price:
Our Price: $15.56
You Save: $9.44 (38%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $15.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: George H. NashEdition: Paperback
Published: 2006-10-31
ISBN: 1933859121
Number of pages: 490
Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Book Reviews of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945
Book Review: Instructive
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very good book, but readers should be aware of what is and isn't prior to picking it up. Apparently an expanded version of the author's PhD dissertation, this book covers the intellectual aspects of the Conservative movement from the immediate post-war period to the early 1970s. It is not a history of conservatism as a political or social movement. The author does not cover the last 30 years, though there is an appendix chapter added in the late 80s or early 90s which is surprisingly dated. Within these limits, this is a fine book. Nash does a very good job of showing the diversity of conservative intellectuals, describing the libertarian, conservative Catholic, traditional elitist, and backward looking romanticism that came to make up important features of the modern conservative movement. He is quite good in describing the broad variety of important conservative writers, the interactions between the different strains of the movement, how they developed institutions like the National Review to support the movement, and provides some information about their broader impact. This book is very well written with particularly good combinations of relevant quotations from primary sources and the author's descriptions. The scholarship is excellent, based both on a careful reading of a large volume of literature and quite a few interviews.
There are some significant limitations. Despite Nash's serious effort to give a broad view of the conservative movement, this is something of a National Review version of the conservative movement. There is no treatment of fundamentalist conservatism or its theological underpinnings. Also symptomatic of the limitations of Nash's approach is the treatment of Ayn Rand. The latter is discussed only in the context of the reception of her writings by figures that Nash considers central to the movement. Rand may not have had very good ideas (one critic, cruelly but accurately referred to her as a pseudo-philosopher) but she did have ideas and has been influential. Its likely that more people have come to the libertarian version of conservatism via the Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged than through the pages of the National Review. Nash's view of the mainstream of the movement tends to ignore popular but important figures like Rand.
Another problem with Nash's narration is that he often fails to provide context for the writings under discussion. Nash is generally sympathetic to the conservative movement and many of the writers he discusses. This is generally good because he takes them seriously and writes insightfully about their work. There are times, however, when some critical distance would be useful. For example, it would be worth mentioning that the Spanish "christian social order" much admired by L. Brent Bozell was Franco's regime, or that J. James Kilpatrick's "able polemic" of 1957 was an effort to defend Jim Crow, or that the influential Richard Weaver's inspirational view of the antebellum American South was a romantic delusion.
History Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in My Top 10 Political Books
America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Orderby Stefan Halper, Jonathan Clarke
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2005-09-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacyby Francis Fukuyama
Yale University Press; Published: 2006-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Conservatives Without Conscienceby John W. Dean
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945by George H. Nash
Intercollegiate Studies Institute; Published: 2006-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.60
Price in other shops:
Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy; With a new Afterwordby Jacob S. Hacker, Paul Pierson
Yale University Press; Published: 2006-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Backby Andrew Sullivan
HarperCollins; Published: 2006-10-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
The Assault on Reasonby Al Gore
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2007-05-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.75
Price in other shops:
The Matador's Cape: America's Reckless Response to Terrorby Stephen Holmes
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2007-04-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.81
Price in other shops:
Whose Freedom?: The Battle over America's Most Important Ideaby George Lakoff
Picador; Published: 2007-05-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.69
Price in other shops:
What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of Americaby Thomas Frank
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2005-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939by Lizabeth Cohen
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2008-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.50
Price in other shops:
The Making of the American Conservative Mind: National Review and Its Timesby Jeffrey Hart
Intercollegiate Studies Institute; Published: 2006-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.60
Price in other shops:
Conservatism in America since 1930: A Readerby Gregory Schneider
NYU Press; Published: 2003-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.35
Price in other shops:
The Movement and The Sixtiesby Terry H. Anderson
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1996-05-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.29
Price in other shops:
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaningby Jonah Goldberg
Doubleday; Published: 2008-01-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.15
Price in other shops:
The Long Detour: The History And Future Of The American Leftby James Weinstein
Basic Books; Published: 2004-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Ideas Have Consequencesby Richard M. Weaver
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 1984-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops:
God and Man at Yaleby William F. Buckley
Regnery Publishing, Inc.; Published: 1977-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Conscience of a Conservativeby Barry Goldwater
Bnpublishing.com; Published: 2007-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.29
Price in other shops:
The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliotby Russell Kirk
BN Publishing; Published: 2008-08-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.66
Price in other shops: