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conservatism



  • Trump and DeSantis Two Peas in a White Nationalist Pod

    by Clarence Lusane

    Any Republican candidate will need to lean in to the politics of white Christian nationalism ascendant on the right; Trump has needed the MAGA movement as much as it's needed him. 



  • Two New Books Take the 1990s as a Pivotal Decade

    by Henry M.J. Tonks

    Books by Lily Geismer and Nicole Hemmer look at the changes that took place within the Democratic and Republican parties (respectively) during a decade that was supposed to be the end of history. 



  • What Does Clarence Thomas Think Clarence Thomas is Doing?

    A panel of scholars and journalists examine a paradox: how Clarence Thomas went from embracing the tenets of Black Nationalism to an administrative and judicial career that most characterize as hostile to the rights of Black Americans. 



  • Matthew Dallek: The Birchers Won By Losing

    The defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964 was supposed to mark the demise of the conspiratorial right. Matthew Dallek's book explains how the fringe rose to dominate the Republican Party in 2024, in part because of the shortsightedness of liberal elites. 



  • With Tucker, Fox Painted Itself Into a Corner

    by Nicole Hemmer

    Carlson was the key figure that allowed Fox News to avoid being eclipsed by MAGA and the ability of Donald Trump to command media attention without the network's help. Now the network must reckon with the costs – in legal settlements and journalistic legitimacy—of letting Carlson run the show. 



  • What's Driving J.D. Vance?

    by Gabriel Winant

    J.D. Vance rose to fame through a book that was heavy on popular psychology and self-help tropes while skirting systemic analysis of poverty and social change. As the Senator now careens hard to the right, a historian decides to evaluate him on his own terms. 



  • 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.