Conservative Thinkers: From John Adams to Winston Churchill

Description

Across America today, conservatism is being hotly debated both across the political spectrum and within the conservative movement itself. Much of the public debate is without definition or historical context. This history of conservatism by renowned historian, social critic, and poet Peter Viereck aims to meet the need for a concise, balanced picture of conservative thought in all its different shadings and cultural contexts. The analytical portion of the book provides a succinct but thorough critical overview of conservatism's most representative figures. Viereck begins with chapters defining conservatism itself, its special technical terms, and its changing historical circumstances. The rest deals with its actual thinkers and statesmen. After each main conservative thesis, the anti-conservative rebuttal is summarized, and the reader is allowed to reach his own conclusions. Though the first stress is on conservative political philosophy (from John Adams to Churchill), key sections also stress non-political conservatism: in religion (Cardinal Newman) and in the primarily cultural protest against material progress (Coleridge, Dostoyevsky, Melville, Henry Adams). Every major point is concretely illustrated by an appended cross-reference to a primary source in the second half, a well-chosen anthology of key conservative documents. Criteria for inclusion are three, representativeness, depth of perception, importance of influence. The result is not uniformity but a gamut: from extreme intolerant reaction to an evolutionary moderate spirit. The former passes imperceptibly into authoritarianism; the latter, into liberalism. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface to the Transaction Edition Preface PART I—CONSERVATISM I: GENERAL 1. Historical and Philosophical Origins of Conservatism 2. "Aristocrat" and Other Special Terms 3. The Great Reversal: From Internationalism to Nationalism II: BRITISH 4. Burke 5. Coleridge, Carlyle, Newman 6. Tory Democracy: Disraeli and Churchill III: LATIN EUROPE 7. Maistre: Catholic Monarchist 8. Tocqueville and Taine: Moderate Anti-Jacobins 9. Barrès and Maurras: Authoritarian Nationalists 10. Spain: Donoso Cortés IV: EAST OF THE RHINE 11. Metternich: Internationalist and "Conservative Socialist" 12. Germany 13. Russia V: THE UNITED STATES 14. Our Federalist Founders: The Conservation of 1776 15. Calhoun 16. America Since the Civil War PART II—DOCUMENTS 1. Edmund Burke, 1770, 1790 2. John Adams, 1776-1821 3. Alexander Hamilton, 1787 4. James Madison, 1787 5. John Quincy Adams, 1791, 1822 6. Samuel T. Coleridge, 1798-1832 7. Friedrich Gentz, 1801 8. Joseph de Maistre, 1810, 1821 9. Adam Müller, 1819 10. Clemens von Metternich, 1820, 1817-1848 11. Benjamin Disraeli, 1835, 1847, 1848, 1862, 1867, 1872 12. Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835, 1840, 1848-52 13. John C. Calhoun, 1838, 1850 14. Thomas Carlyle, 1843 15. Don Juan Donoso Cortés, 1851 16. Jakob Burckhardt, 1864-1893 17. Feodor Dostoyevsky, 1864 18. John Henry Newman, 1864, 1865 19. Pius IX, 1864 20. Louis Veuillot, 1866 21. Henry Sumner Maine, 1885 22. Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886, 1889 23. Konstantin Petrovich Pobiedonostsev, 1898 24. Winston S. Churchill, 1903-1946 25. W. G. Sumner, 1904 26. Maurice Barrès, 1916 27. Irving Babbitt, 1924 28. Ortega y Gasset, 1930 29. George Santayana, 1951 30. Frank Tannenbaum, 1952 31. Wall Street Journal, 1955 Bibliographical Note: Suggested Reading for Students Index