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THE DEATH OF CONSERVATISM
By: Sam Tanenhaus
Random House
September 2009
On Sale: September 1, 2009
144 pages
ISBN: 1400068843
EAN: 9781400068845
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Sam Tanenhausβs essay βConservatism Is Deadβ prompted intense discussion and debate when it was published in The New Republic in the first days of Barack Obamaβs presidency. Now Tanenhaus, a leading authority on modern politics, has expanded his argument into a sweeping history of the American conservative movement. For seventy-five years, he argues, the Right has been split between two factions: consensus-driven βrealistsβ who believe in the virtue of government and its power to adjust to changing conditions, and movement βrevanchistsβ who distrust government and societyβand often find themselves at war with America itself. Eventually, Tanenhaus writes, the revanchists prevailed, and the result is the decadent βmovement conservatismβ of today, a defunct ideology that is βprofoundly and defiantly unconservativeβin its arguments and ideas, its tactics and strategies, above all in its vision.β But there is hope for conservatism. It resides in the examples of pragmatic leaders like Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan and thinkers like Whittaker Chambers and William F. Buckley, Jr. Each came to understand that the true role of conservatism is not to advance a narrow ideological agenda but to engage in a serious dialogue with liberalism and join with it in upholding βthe politics of stability.β Conservatives today need to rediscover the roots of this honorable tradition. It is their only route back to the center of American politics. At once succinct and detailed, penetrating and nuanced, The Death of Conservatism is a must-read for Americans of any political persuasion.
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