The Conservative Tradition

With the American conservative movement undergoing an identity crisis, this 36-lecture, 18-hour course from The Teaching Company should attract a ready audience. Professor Patrick N. Allitt of Emory University is an articulate and thoughtful guide through the thickets of Anglo-American conservatism, beginning with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 but taking up the story in earnest with Edmund Burke's critique of Enlightenment political theory, which most accept as the foundation of modern conservatism. Allitt skillfully traces the British and American strands within the tradition, offering brief but pointed descriptions of relevant figures, accompanied by well-chosen quotations from the work of influential writers, including Burke (Reflections on the Revolution in France) and William F. Buckley (founder/editor of the National Review), and politicians ranging from England's Robert Peel to Margaret Thatcher, and America's Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan. The differences between such “schools” as traditional conservatives, libertarians, neoconservatives, and theoconservatives are clearly drawn and presented within the overall sociopolitical context in a judicious, non-polemical way. Featuring separately available course books (with lecture outlines, transcripts, maps, a timeline, glossary, and bibliography), this solid guide to a key development in intellectual history is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)