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conservatism



  • Edmund Burke's Defense of Order Indulged Racism and Antisemitism

    by Aidan Beatty

    A critic argues that a founding document of modern conservatism was steeped in the author's belief that Jews were responsible for exporting French radicalism; while few right-wingers today seem to actually read Burke, some carry on this legacy.



  • Why is the Right Obsessed with Gramsci?

    by Alberto Toscano

    A lack of familiarity with the actual writings of the Italian Marxist hasn't stopped the right, including Christopher Rufo and Nate Hochmann, from placing Antonio Gramsci at the center of a conspiracy theory about leftists seeking to conquer social institutions to undermine American society. 



  • WDJD (What Did Jesus Do)?: Do Evangelicals Care?

    by Adam Jortner

    While American leftists could find much to embrace in the Gospels, the political actions of many white Evangelicals is likely to push them away. Is it too late to reverse the merger of evangelicalism with conservative movement politics? 



  • Review: The Right-Wing Abuse of Adam Smith

    by Kim Phillips-Fein

    Glory M. Liu's account of Adam Smith's reception in America explains how American politicians read selectively in Smith's capacious writings on political economy and public morality to construct a self-interested view of the market as a natural phenomenon, writes historian Kim Phillips-Fein. 



  • The Threat of Christian Nationalism

    by Kristin Du Mez

    "Because Christian nationalists believe that God is on their side and that the fate of Christian America is at stake, among staunch adherents there is no space for compromise."



  • Florida's Higher Ed Battles are, in Fact, Highly Precedented

    by Barrett J. Taylor

    Understanding the processes and agendas at work in the DeSantis administration's push to change higher education in Florida can help provide perspective on what's new, what's familiar, and what's at stake in the future. 



  • Posthumous Limbaugh Book Skirts His Toxic Legacy

    The collection of transcripts from Rush's radio program emphasizes the positive ways he built solidarity with his audience while occluding the negative ways he maintained it by stirring resentments against others and lying about his political opponents. 



  • Why the Fringe is in Charge of the GOP

    by Richard H. Pildes

    The ability of a couple dozen hardliners to derail the Speaker election reflects deep transformations in the power of congressional leaders to wield power through commitee assignments and campaign funds. Will this make governing impossible? 



  • Are Conservatives Really Pulling Ahead in the Comedy Race?

    Does a ratings boost for Greg Gutfeld's late-night show mean that today's conservatives are the funny ones and liberals are too "woke" to laugh? Answering the question means looking past party loyalty to ask what makes humor, says humor historian Teresa Prados-Terreira. 



  • Review: When Freedom Meant the Freedom to Oppress

    by Jeff Shesol

    Jefferson Cowie's new book traces the current resurgence of racist and antigovernment radicalism through the history of George Wallace's Alabama home county. 



  • Why Can't the US Press Name the Bad Faith in Evangelical Politics?

    by John Stoehr

    Head-scratching accounts of "conflicted" evangelicals voting again and again for manifestly ungodly candidates would vanish if the media consulted (or hired) ex-evangelicals, who would explain the movement seeks power, not piety. 



  • Michael Kazin on J. Edgar Hoover, and Beverly Gage's Acclaimed Biography

    by Michael Kazin

    The signal contribution of Gage's book is not to examine Hoover's ideology or the details of his personal life, but to show how the FBI director built power and broad support, among even liberal Americans, for intrusive surveillance and repression of activists. 



  • Are Elite Conservatives Getting Too Weird to Win?

    by Graham Gallagher

    The right's move toward European nationalism, conservative Catholicism, and other departures from domestic conservative tradition are troubling to scholars of reactionary politics. But they might just seem weird to voters. 



  • Did Today's Right Originate in the 1990s? (Review)

    by John Ganz

    Nicole Hemmer's book "Partisans" looks to a generation of conservatives who found the Reagan Revolution inadequate and laid the foundations for MAGA during the Clinton years.