"The sharp polarisation of left and right is commonly dwelt on as the big political handicap of our times. Angry divisions on the right itself get less attention. Conservatism fills that gap. Across Europe and the US, a liberal right is at war with an illiberal right. As the leading force in politics, it is vital to understand the roots of the right's struggle with itself, how it stands and how it is likely to come out. From its early 19th-century origins to now, conservatism never finally settled on how far to compromise with liberalism, democracy and the capitalist world out of which both grew. By the late 19th century, the mainstream right had come to terms with all three. Its reward was lasting success in the next century and beyond. On the political fringes and among ethical-cultural critics, a recalcitrant right, unreconciled to liberal democracy, never died. Resistance to liberal democracy is seen today in the hard right, a strange but potent alliance of hyper-liberal globalists and anti-liberal localists. Conservatism focuses on an exemplary core of France, Britain, Germany and the United States. It describes the parties, politicians and thinkers of the right, bringing out strengths and weaknesses in conservative thought. An appendix includes definitions of leading terms, a brief account of conservatism's philosophical origins and mini-lives of more than 200 conservatives. Historical and topical, neither celebration nor caricature, Conservatism is a unique, panoramic survey of the Western world's dominant political tradition"--.

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I: CONSERVATISM’S FORERUNNERS
  • One. Critics of Revolution
    • i. The Hard Authority of Punishment and Soft Authority of Custom: Maistre and Burke
    • ii. The Call of Faith and Beauty: Chateaubriand
    • iii. Order in Nations and among Nations: Gentz
    • iv. Revolution to Prevent Revolution: Madison
    • v. What the Critics Left to Conservatism
• PART II: WHAT CONSERVATISM IS
  • Two. Character, Outlook, and Labelling of Conservatism
    • i. Conservatism as a Political Practice
    • ii. The Conservative Outlook
    • iii. Conservative and Liberal Outlooks Contrasted
    • iv. Bonding Spaces for Conservatives with Liberals
    • v. The Adaptability of Conservative Ideas
    • vi. “Conservatism,” “the Right,” and Other Label Troubles
    • vii. Dilemmas for Conservatives
    • viii. Fighting for a Tradition
• PART III: CONSERVATISM’S FIRST PHASE (1830–80): RESISTING LIBERALISM
  • The Year 1830
  • Three. Parties and Politicians: A Right without Authority
    • i. Improvisations of the French Right
    • ii. The British Right’s Divided Heart: Peel or Disraeli
    • iii. German Conservatives without Caricature
    • iv. United States: Whigs and Jacksonians; Republicans and Democrats
  • Four. Ideas and Thinkers: Turning Reason against Liberalism
    • i. Constitutions for Unacceptable Ends: Calhoun
    • ii. Reason for the Right Replaces Nostalgia: Stahl
    • iii. How Conservatives Should Defend Religion: Lamennais, Ketteler, Newman, Brownson, and Hodge
    • iv. Conservatism’s Need for Intellectuals: Coleridge’s Clerisy
    • v. Against Liberal Individualism: Stephen, Gierke, and Bradley
• PART IV: CONSERVATISM’S SECOND PHASE (1880–1945): ADAPTATION AND COMPROMISE
  • The Year 1880
  • Five. Parties and Politicians: Authority Recovered and Squandered
    • i. The Moderate Right in France’s Third Republic
    • ii. British Conservatives Adapt
    • iii. The Ambivalence of German Conservatives
    • iv. The American Nonexception
  • Six. Ideas and Thinkers: Distrust of Democracy and of Public Reason
    • i. Defending Capitalism: Mallock, Sumner, and Schumpeter
    • ii. Six Ways to Imagine the People: Treitschke, Le Bon, Du Camp, Adams, Mencken, and Sorel
    • iii. Cultural Decline and Ethical Anomie: Jünger and Other Germans, Drieu la Rochelle, the Southern Agrarians, and Eliot
    • iv. Funeral Oratory for Liberal Democracy: Schmitt and Maurras
  • PART V: CONSERVATISM’S THIRD PHASE (1945–80): POLITICAL COMMAND AND INTELLECTUAL RECOVERY
    • The Year 1945
    • Seven. Parties and Politicians: Recovering Nerve and Rewinning Power
      • i. Normality, Pride, and Rage in France: Pinay, de Gaulle, and Poujade
      • ii. Tory Wets and Dries in Britain: Macmillan to Thatcher
      • iii. Remaking the German Middle Ground: Adenauer and Christian Democracy
      • iv. The US Right Divided: Eisenhower-Taft, Rockefeller-Goldwater, Ford-Reagan
    • Eight. Ideas and Thinkers: Answering Liberal Orthodoxies
      • i. Herald of the Hard Right: Powell
      • ii. Our Conservative Second Nature: Gehlen
      • iii. The Liberal Moderns’ Fall from Grace: Weaver, Voegelin, and MacIntyre
      • iv. Winning the US Stage: Kirk, Buckley, and Kristol
• PART VI: CONSERVATISM’S FOURTH PHASE (1980–THE PRESENT): HYPER-LIBERALISM AND THE HARD RIGHT
  • The Year 1980
  • Nine. Parties and Politicians: Letting in the Hard Right
    • i. The Center-Right in the 1980s and 1990s
    • ii. The Rise of the Hard Right: The Le Pens, AfD, Brexit, and Trump
    • iii. The Theme Musicof the Hard Right: Decline, Capture, Enemies, and Victimhood
    • iv. What Populism Is and Isn’t
  • Ten. Ideas and Thinkers: Yes or No to a Hyper-liberal Status Quo
    • i. Right-Wing Liberals, Antiglobalists, and Moral-Cultural Conservatives
    • ii. The Hard Right in the American Grain: Buchanan, the Paleos, and Dreher
    • iii. The New Voices of the Right in Germany and France
    • iv. Three Unreconciled Thinkers: Finnis, Scruton, and Sloterdijk
    • v. For the Status-Quo:Pragmatism, the Via Media, Anxiety, or “Realism”
• CODA: CHOICES FOR THE RIGHT
• Appendix A: Conservative Keywords
• Appendix B: Philosophical Sources of Conservative Thought
• Appendix C: Conservative Lives: A Gazetteer
• Works Consulted
• Index of Names
• Index of Subjects