Conservative Moments: Reading Conservative Texts

Description

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. As a complex and multifaceted world-view, conservatism is often pigeonholed and partially understood. And while the nature of conservative ideology is warmly contested among scholars, no-one can deny its prominence in contemporary debates and its effects on the politics of everyday life. These 16 essays written by expert scholars and specialists offer a broad survey of conservative thought that extends beyond typical historical and geographic boundaries to include past thinkers like Plato and Edmund Burke, non-European conservative traditions such as Japan and Russia, and political 'practitioners' including Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Charles de Gaulle. Each essay grapples with short primary source extracts while offering instructive criticism and commentary. Conservative Moments offers students a useful, accessible, and comprehensive exposition of this political ideology.

Mark Garnett is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Lancaster, UK. He is the author of The British Coalition Government, 2010-2015 (2016), Exploring British Politics, 4th Edition (2016) and Conservatism and Ideology (2015).

A first-rate collection of brief original texts and accompanying explicative essays that encourages readers to think deeply about the nature of conservatism. This is a substantial achievement in a small package and an intellectual pleasure no matter the reader's own predilections. * Robert M. Collins, Wm. H. Byler Professor of Social and Behavioural Science Emeritus, University of Missouri, USA * In this wide-ranging and discerning collection of essays, eighteen distinguished scholars help us to understand conservatism. The result is a deeper appreciation of the varieties and persistence of a political tendency that has crossed cultural boundaries and continues to influence our world. * George H Nash, author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 *