“The most convincing and thorough evisceration and dismissal of Enlightenment political thought in the last 70 years.”
— Michael McKenna, Washington Times
Conservatism
A Rediscovery
Description
The idea that American conservatism is identical to "classical" liberalism—widely held since the 1960s—is seriously mistaken.
The award-winning political theorist Yoram Hazony argues that the best hope for Western democracy is a return to the empiricist, religious, and nationalist traditions of America and Britain—the conservative traditions that brought greatness to the English-speaking nations and became the model for national freedom for the entire world.
Conservatism: A Rediscovery explains how Anglo-American conservatism became a distinctive alternative to divine-right monarchy, Puritan theocracy, and liberal revolution. After tracing the tradition from the Wars of the Roses to Burke and across the Atlantic to the American Federalists and Lincoln, Hazony describes the rise and fall of Enlightenment liberalism after World War II and the present-day debates between neoconservatives and national conservatives over how to respond to liberalism and the woke left.
Going where no political thinker has gone in decades, Hazony provides a fresh theoretical foundation for conservatism. Rejecting the liberalism of Hayek, Strauss, and the "fusionists" of the 1960s, and drawing on decades of personal experience in the conservative movement, he argues that a revival of authentic Anglo-American conservatism is possible in the twenty-first century.
Reviews
“A magisterial book by an important conservative intellectual. To conceptualize and defend as sweeping a political philosophy as Hazony does is a real accomplishment.”
— Matthew McManus, Liberal Currents
“A brilliant, moving, and compelling account of what it means to be a conservative in today’s world.”
— Ben Dunson, American Reformer
“An astonishing essay in political anthropology… It is not often that a reviewer reaches for the word ‘masterpiece,’ but this is one book where the word is warranted.”
–Bradford Littlejohn, Law and Liberty
