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This book about the conservative movement is described in the several endorsements on the jacket by various academics as absorbing, convincing, compelling, concise, and readable. The author tells this 20th century political story through separate chapters on the six leaders who had the biggest influence on the movement: Robert Taft, William Buckley, Barry Goldwater, Phyllis Schlafly, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. What distinguishes this book from other recent books on the conservative movement is the author's in-depth analysis The author correctly identified Robert Taft as the inventor of the modern conservative movement, long before it was cool to be identified as a conservative. Taft set conservatism on its virtue-claiming course by calling for a society not only with a higher standard of living but with higher standards of character. William Buckley is pictured as one who made conservatism intellectually respectable, combining anti-Communism with deference to religious faith, and starting the campaign to make "liberal" a negative word. Barry Goldwater, whom Farber calls "conservatism's John the Baptist figure," led the conservative takeover of the Republican Party, but that dissipated soon after his 1964 defeat. The author explains how Phyllis Schlafly gave new life to the conservative movement in the 1970s by energizing a network of grassroots activists who wanted to keep the traditional family safe from the feminist agenda. The chapter on Ronald Reagan describes how his optimistic personality made conservatism popular and conservatives nationally electable. The final chapter is on George W. Bush, whose personality Farber explains very well, but whose presidency, according to Farber, marked "the end of the conservative ascendancy." Letting himself be succeeded by Barack Obama meant that "the modern conservative movement had fallen." Like most academics, David Farber's (Professor of History at Temple University) own liberal outlook induced him to write too much about race, a topic that actually played a minimal role in the conservative movement. Putting that criticism aside, the book presents a story of politics that makes good reading, even though Farber never guessed that conservatism could rebound as it did on November 2, 2010 after his book was published. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, 308 pp., $29.95) |
of the persona of each of those six and how their personalities interacted with their life work in the political arena. The author accurately figured them all out, where they came from ideologically, what made them tick, and how they combined their lifestyles with their political activities.
