Conservatism: A Rediscovery

The idea that conservatism amounts to little more than being in favour of free market capitalism and a small state—widely held for decades—is seriously mistaken. Award-winning political theorist Yoram Hazony argues that the best hope for Western democracy is to return to a genuine conservatism that is distinct from the hollow promises of contemporary economic and social liberalism. He explains how this great Anglo-American conservative tradition – rooted in empiricism, faith and the nation – emerged and developed in England in the thought of men like Richard Hooker and Edmund Burke, and later inspired American figures ranging from the Federalists to Lincoln. He analyses how this tradition was corrupted and subverted from the 1960s onwards by the right’s misconceived embrace of ‘fusionism’ and liberalism, and how it can be revived today to respond to an era of progressive hegemony. Reflecting on his own first-hand experiences - and the importance of personal behaviour, piety and virtue in rebuilding the culture and politics of conservatism – Hazony makes a powerful counter-cultural case for a revivified conservatism that no-one dissatisfied with the current state of the political right can afford to miss.