Conservatism The fight for a tradition

Former chief correspondent to The Economist and previous author of Liberalism: The Life of an Idea (CH, Jan'15, 52-2803), Fawcett here provides an extensive discussion of conservative politics and thought. He examines conservatism in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the US, beginning with Edmund Burke and continuing to the present. Fawcett defines "conservative keywords" such as decline and establishment and offers thumbnail sketches of iconic conservative politicians and economists, e.g., Margaret Thatcher and Joseph Schumpeter. The book is most useful for its discussion of politicians and authors of Great Britain, and in bringing attention to now neglected German and French authors. This clear, well-written, and serious text is generally fair-minded, although Fawcett's own liberalism occasionally colors his rhetoric. He also downplays contemporary conservatism's attempt to confront liberalism's leftward turn to progressivism, and progressives' current dominance over leading cultural institutions. The book's major weakness, from a US point of view, is its failing to come to grips with the element of US conservatism that seeks to preserve the founding principles of equal individual natural rights--principles that are in their own way radical. Fawcett's occasional mentions of liberal conservatism and conservative liberalism are insufficiently developed. On the whole, however, this is a thoughtful volume from which one can learn much. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. --Mark Blitz, Claremont McKenna College

A bracing history of two-plus centuries of modern Western conservative thought. A companion to his well-received Liberalism (2014), Fawcett's latest is as readable and comprehensive as its predecessor. The author, an editor and correspondent at the Economist for more than 30 years, begins with late-18th-century thinkers Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre, using them as examples, respectively, of moderate and radical conservatism. This motif--of different strands of conservatism--pervades the narrative until Fawcett ends with today's "hard right." While many familiar figures fill the survey, part of the narrative's strength lies in the author's exhumation of long-forgotten conservative thinkers, including William Mallock, Charles Hodge, August Rehberg, and F.H. Bradley, among many others. While explanation of the thinking of others is Fawcett's strong suit, he never fails to offer criticisms of the thought and actions of those he believes warrant them. Fair toward everyone while skeptical about many, he's alarmed by those who've recently joined the "rightward rush from the liberal-democratic status quo." The narrative suffers somewhat from a lack of more information about such influential conservative thinkers as Samuel P. Huntington and Robert A. Nisbet, but the author's broad scope and inclusivity allow him to effectively examine not only the genuine contribution of modern conservative thought, but also the unfortunate results of a variety of relevant historical currents--especially regarding the far right today. "As a left-wing liberal," writes Fawcett, "I do not claim that this history is neutral. I trust it is objective. I have tried to avoid two standbys of political writing, celebration and caricature." Ultimately, it's hard to argue with the author's concern about the recent darkening of conservatism and its surrender of the high ground of thought and action. He concludes with useful appendices on the sources of conservatism, its principal keywords and concepts, and a 60-page, detailed gazetteer of its leading figures. An immensely stimulating canter through a major segment of Western political tradition. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.