Conservative Moments: Reading Conservative Texts

About the Author

John MorrowisProfessor of Political Studies and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has been a Bye Fellow at Robinson College, Cambridge, a visiting lecturer in the History Faculty at the University of Cambridge, and a visiting fellow at both the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.

Product Description

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.

Review

“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