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Sunday, March 1, 2009

Relevant right history

I've mentioned these books before, and I note them again because they have a great deal of relevance to the present day: The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution by Gregory Schneider and Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan by Kim Phillips-Fein. Schneider's book shows how conservatism has a profound ability to reinvent itself without losing continuity with its past (a point I tried to make at the recent future-of-the-right debate) and Phillips-Fein shows how conservative intellectualism grew stronger in the very hostile environment of the Depression.