For two hundred years, conservatism has defied its reputation as a backward-looking creed by confronting and adapting to liberal modernity. By doing so, the Right has won long periods of power and effectively become the dominant tradition in politics. Yet, despite their success, conservatives have continued to fight with each other about how far to compromise with liberalism and democracy—or which values to defend and how. In Conservatism, Edmund Fawcett 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, Fawcett’s vivid narrative covers thinkers and politicians. They include the forerunners James Madison, Edmund Burke, and Joseph de Maistre; early friends and foes of capitalism; defenders of religion; and builders of modern parties, such as William McKinley and Lord Salisbury. The book chronicles the cultural critics and radical disruptors of the 1920s and 1930s, recounts 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.
An absorbing, original history of the Right, Conservatism portrays a tradition as much at war with itself as with its opponents.
Edmund Fawcett worked at The Economist for more than three decades, serving as its chief correspondent in Washington, Paris, Berlin, and Brussels, as well as its European and literary editor. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, the New Statesman, and the Times Literary Supplement. He is the author of Liberalism: The Life of an Idea (Princeton).
"A companion to his well-received Liberalism (2014), Fawcett’s latest is as readable and comprehensive as its predecessor. . . . An immensely stimulating canter though a major segment of Western political tradition."—Kirkus, Starred Review
"Rich with insights, this is an essential book for understanding contemporary politics in what once seemed to be stably liberal democratic societies. Fawcett tells an important story that will help the left understand how the right became the force that it is today, and that will clarify for conservatives a fissure within the right that now compels them to choose between dramatically different visions of our political future."—Tamsin Shaw, New York University
"This is a panoptic account of the changing character of conservatism, both in theory and practice, from its inception as a reaction to the French Revolution to the present. By contrasting conservatism's development in four nations, this book presents a compelling picture of how what began as a beleaguered defense of a lost cause became a confident capitalist creed. It also explains why, for long stretches over the past two centuries, conservative politics has been able to subdue its liberal, radical, and socialist rivals."—Gareth Stedman Jones, Queen Mary University of London
“Bold, engaging, and forthright, Fawcett’s wide-ranging book captures the many facets of conservatism. This book is a must-read for both friends and foes of conservatism.”—Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth
“From resistance to the French Revolution to populist appeal in the twenty-first century, from American proslavery thought to the predicaments of post-Nazi politics, this book provides a sweeping overview of a political tradition that has often been underestimated, both in its intellectual ambitions and in its practical effects on the course of Western societies. Fawcett’s fresh account is as accessible as it is stimulating, and makes the reader grasp the paradoxes of conservatism, its malleability in the guise of stubbornness.”—Paul Nolte, Free University Berlin
“A remarkable achievement of wisdom, erudition, and style. In setting out to uncover the family resemblances and the family squabbles behind the contested term ‘conservativism,’ Edmund Fawcett combines extraordinary historical scholarship and analytic power to trace out the lineage of a tradition. Writing as a left-liberal, puzzled by the question ‘if we’re so smart, how come we’re not in charge?,’ Fawcett has performed an enormous service to anyone wishing to understand conservatism’s dominance and appeal.”—Jonathan Wolff, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
“An impressive and stylish synthesis.”—Duncan Kelly, University of Cambridge
