Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition

Conservatism has defied its reputation as a backward-looking creed by confronting and adapting to liberal modernity, but it has continued to fight with each other about how far to compromise with liberalism and democracy. Edmund Fawcett's book Conservatism provides a gripping account of this conflicted history, clarifies key ideas, and illuminates quarrels within the Right today, focusing on the United States, Britain, France, and Germany.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 544 pages
Publication date: 05 April 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Conservatism, a political ideology that has defied its reputation as a backward-looking creed for two hundred years, has successfully confronted and adapted to liberal modernity, securing long periods of power and becoming the dominant tradition in politics. Despite their success, conservatives continue to engage in internal debates about how far to compromise with liberalism and democracy, as well as which values to defend and how. In his book, Conservatism, Edmund Fawcett offers a captivating account of this conflicted history, clarifying key ideas and illuminating quarrels within the Right today. Focusing on the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, Fawcett's vivid narrative encompasses thinkers and politicians such as James Madison, Edmund Burke, Joseph de Maistre, early advocates and foes of capitalism, defenders of religion, and builders of modern parties like William McKinley and Lord Salisbury. The book chronicles the cultural critics and radical disruptors of the 1920s and 1930s, explores how advocates of laissez-faire economics broke the post-1945 consensus, and describes how Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and their European counterparts are pushing conservatism toward a nation-first, hard Right. Conservatism portrays a tradition that is as much at war with itself as with its opponents.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 203 x 134 x 40 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691233994