If you?re a student of American conservatism, it?s likely that you?ve encountered (or will encounter) George Nash?s classic history of the post-World War II conservative intellectual movement. First published in 1976 and updated 30 years later, it remains an important primer on the various currents of conservative thought.
In the 2009 book Reappraising the Right: The Past & Future of American Conservatism, Nash offers more insights. But this is no sequel. Reappraising collects essays and speeches Nash has compiled over the past few decades.
While his research and analysis continue to offer a valuable perspective, the overall package lacks cohesion. The book?s first third features a series of short profiles of important conservative figures, followed by five short essays on William F. Buckley and National Review.
Then readers are forced to shift gears. Rather than continue with short pieces, Nash turns to longer articles on topics of less general interest, including more than 60 pages devoted to Herbert Hoover.
Still, Nash?s work always enlightens, as when his concluding essay ponders the language of conservative thought today:
What do conservatives want? Limited government, they answer; free enterprise, strict construction of the Constitution, fiscal responsibility, traditional values and respect for the sanctity of human life. No doubt, but I wonder: How much are these traditional catchphrases and abstractions persuading people anymore? How much are they inspiring the rising generation? How much are they resonating with America?s dominant professional classes, particularly those in the more secularized and urbanized regions of this country?
It is not a new problem. In fact, it is a perennial problem, the essence of which Whittaker Chambers captured long ago. ?Each age, he wrote, ?finds its own language for an eternal meaning.?
What do conservatives want? To put it in elementary terms, we want to be free, we want to live virtuous and productive lives, and we want to be secure from threats beyond and within our borders. We want to live in a society that sustains and encourages these aspirations. Freedom, virtue, safety: goals reflected in the libertarian, traditionalist, and national security dimensions of the conservative movement. But to achieve these perennial goals, we must communicate in language that connects not only with our own coterie but with the great majority of the American people.
