The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism

by Matthew Continetti

Overview

A magisterial intellectual history of the last century of American conservatism

When most people think of the history of modern conservatism, they think of Ronald Reagan. Yet this narrow view leaves many to question: How did Donald Trump win the presidency? And what is the future of the Republican Party?

In The Right, Matthew Continetti gives a sweeping account of movement conservatism’s evolution, from the Progressive Era through the present. He tells the story of how conservatism began as networks of intellectuals, developing and institutionalizing a vision that grew over time, until they began to buckle under new pressures, resembling national populist movements. Drawing out the tensions between the desire for mainstream acceptance and the pull of extremism, Continetti argues that the more one studies conservatism’s past, the more one becomes convinced of its future.

Deeply researched and brilliantly told, The Right is essential reading for anyone looking to understand American conservatism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541600508
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	04/19/2022
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	58,995
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Matthew Continetti is a senior fellow and the Patrick and Charlene Neal Chair in American Prosperity at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the founding editor of the Washington Free Beacon and a columnist for Commentary magazine. The author of The Persecution of Sarah Palin and The K Street Gang, he lives in Virginia. 

Table of Contents

Introduction: 1150 Seventeenth Street 1

Chapter 1 Normalcy and Its Discontents 15

Chapter 2 The Revolution of 1932 33

Chapter 3 From World War to Cold War 61

Chapter 4 Ike, McCarthy, and the New Conservatism 91

Chapter 5 A Movement Grows 113

Chapter 6 New Frontiers 141

Chapter 7 The Great Disruption 173

Chapter 8 Nixon's Conservatives 197

Chapter 9 The Prairie Fire 229

Chapter 10 President Reagan 267

Chapter 11 New World Order 297

Chapter 12 The Freedom Agenda 327

Chapter 13 The Crisis of the Twenty-First Century 351

Chapter 14 The Viral President 375

Conclusion: An American Conservatism 403

Acknowledgments 417

Notes 419

Index 465

Editorial Reviews

02/28/2022

Continetti (The Persecution of Sarah Palin), the founding editor of the Washington Free Beacon, traces the evolution of American conservativism from Warren Harding to Donald Trump in this informative if one-sided history. Identifying the driving force of conservatism as the “endless competition between populism and elitism,” Continetti contends that Trump’s politics draws on the “Americanism” of 1920s Republicans including Harding, who appealed to “our onward, normal way,” rejected internationalism, cut taxes, and championed traditional morality. Trump’s innovation was to add to these traditional conservative viewpoints the dark populist vision of Joseph McCarthy, George Wallace, and Pat Buchanan, according to Continetti. In doing so, he argues, Trump collapsed the creative tension between elitism and populism and tore down the safeguards that have historically excluded conspiracy mongers and other fringe elements. Emphasizing that populism has always been an essential element of American conservatism, Continetti recasts Ronald Reagan’s free market policies and aggressive foreign policy as the high-water mark of “Cold War conservatism” and delves into libertarianism, neoconservatism, and other strands of the movement. Though Continetti overstates Trump’s successes and dubiously claims that 1960s leftists “celebrated” the violence of the decade as “just, necessary, and beneficial,” this is a worthy analysis of how free market policies and nativist populism make for a potent political mix. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2022-02-09
Sturdy account of the many divisions within modern conservatism, divisions that have been growing over a century.

There are many forms of conservatism, writes American Enterprise Institute fellow Continetti, but there are essentially two large camps: populist and elitist, which often battle and occasionally cooperate. “Is the American Right the party of insiders or outsiders? Is the Right the elites—the men and women in charge of America’s political, economic, social, and cultural institutions—or is it the people?” he asks. “And is the Right even able to answer such a question?” A century ago, the Harding administration devalued conservatism with the same disregard for the law and ineptitude during a pandemic that characterized the Trump administration, but both presidents were essentially self-serving rather than ideological. True conservatism, writes the author, safeguards the classical liberal ideals of self-government. “The preservation of the American idea of liberty and the familial, communal, religious, and political institutions that incarnate and sustain it—that is what makes American conservatism distinctly American,” he writes, memorably. Trump instead converted the GOP from the intellectually grounded political opposition of the time of Goldwater and Buckley into a government-hating mob stocked with legions of antisemites and White supremacists. Indeed, Continetti writes, “Every bad habit of the Right was on display in the Capitol riot that left five dead, $30 million in damage, close to three hundred arrested, and Capitol Hill an armed camp.” The author presents a convincing case for a brand of conservatism that checks overly ambitious progressives. He also clearly shows how the Democratic Party has moved to the left precisely in reaction to Trump and needs the restraint of a principled opposition. Highlighting a long string of heroes and villains, Continetti urges “a de-personalization of the Right” and return to core values.

Rational, well thought out, and impeccably argued—of interest to all students of politics.

Kirkus Reviews

A superb work of scholarship and a delight to read. Conservatives will relish the anecdotes, the explanations of half-remembered books; liberals will learn something about their adversaries….invaluable clarity.”—Wall Street Journal, Best Politics Books of 2022

“Superb….[Continetti] brings an insider’s nuance and a historian’s dispassion to the ambitious task of writing the American right’s biography, and he adds a journalist’s knack for deft portraiture and telling details.” —Jonathan Rauch, New York Times

“Mr. Continetti captures beautifully the ad hoc, rearguard nature of American conservatism.”—Wall Street Journal

“The Right is readable and relatable, well-written and engaging. The author’s command of facts is impressive."—The Guardian

“[A] sturdy account of the many divisions within modern conservatism… Rational, well thought out, and impeccably argued—of interest to all students of politics.”—Kirkus, Starred

“Matthew Continetti’s The Right is a rich and detailed survey from the 1920s to now.”—Financial Times

“Thoroughly researched.”—The Economist

“Continetti’s experiences have given him a valuable perspective on his subject… His description of life in the conservative machine has the feel of an eyewitness account.”—The New Republic

“Matthew Continetti applies what scholars of all persuasions should do with American conservatism, treating it as a complex, contradictory movement, often at war between its populists and its intellectual elite wings… Continetti is skilled in going places and making conclusions other rightists don’t.”
 —The Federalist

“An authoritative account of the complex interplay between conservative ideas, politics, and policy over the past century… Continetti is particularly well-positioned to tackle the topic.”—The Public Discourse

"A compelling analysis..."—City Journal

“A much more nuanced and satisfying portrait of the American right than is offered by most other journalists and historians.”—Reason

"Continetti’s perspective is that of a consummate insider… He is, as a result, better attuned than most to the role of elites in the conservative ecosystem, as well as to the limits of their power.”—Unherd

“Continetti’s book is an excellent primer for understanding key aspects of the last century of American politics, and many of the author’s recommendations are very shrewd. He covers a tremendous amount of ground with lucidity and panache.”—American Purpose

"Important… Superior to any previous volume on this critical subject."—Quillette

"Well-researched, lucidly presented, and evenhanded."—Commentary

“Matthew Continetti has written a superb history of the conservative movement.”—World Magazine

“[Continetti] skillfully leads us through the pulsing, fractious, improbable story of American conservatism all the way to today’s fractured Republican party…"—Mosaic

“With The Right, Matthew Continetti has written a fine, comprehensive, and readable narrative of the rip-roaring history of American conservatism with its amazing repertory company of statesmen, philosophers, and eccentrics. It’s a remarkable achievement and a great read…”—Claremont Review of Books

"A worthy analysis.”—Publishers Weekly

“Matthew Continetti has earned his luminous reputation as the foremost contemporary chronicler of American conservatism’s path to today’s problematic condition. He traces conservatism’s rich intellectual pedigree, from the founders’ classical liberalism through twentieth-century conservatives’ responses to the challenges of progressivism. The result is a thinking person’s map for the road ahead.”—George F. Will, author of The Conservative Sensibility

“Matthew Continetti has written an instant classic, sure to become the essential one-volume history of modern American conservatism. Balanced and subtle, it offers an engaging combination of intellectual and political history that makes sense of the immensely complicated story of the Right.”—Yuval Levin, author of A Time to Build

“Deft and authoritative, Matthew Continetti illuminates conservatism’s present through its long and often tumultuous past. The Right isn’t just an engaging history and incisive analysis of the intra-conservative debate, but an essential contribution to it.”—Rich Lowry, editor in chief of National Review

“An immensely useful contribution.”—Jonah Goldberg, editor in chief of The Dispatch

“A brilliant synthesis of political and intellectual history, and it captures several themes essential in this moment.”—Yuval Levin, director of social, cultural, and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute

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