Lee Haddigan (Delaware): How Anticommonism "Cemented" the American Conservative Movement in a Liberal Age of Conformity, 1945–64. Justin Raimondo rereads The Political Principles of Robert A. Taft by Russell Kirk and James McClellan. From Humanitas, Bradley J. Birzer (Hillsdale): More than "Irritable Mental Gestures": Russell Kirk’s Challenge to Liberalism, 1950–1960; and Justin Garrison (CUA): A Covenant with all Mankind: Ronald Reagan’s Idyllic Vision of America in the World. Gideon Rachman on how Reagan ruined conservatism. An interview with Will Bunch, author of Tear Down This Myth: The Right-Wing Distortion of the Reagan Legacy. From The American Conservative, Reid Buckley on how before William F. Buckley Jr. shaped American conservatism, the Mexican frontier shaped his father’s creed; and where have you gone, Henry Regnery? Conservative bestsellers run long on celebrity but short on ideas. James Piereson on Irving Kristol, the godfather of modern conservatism. Patrick Allitt on his book The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History. From Reason, longtime Ron Paul watcher Brian Doherty wonders if his CPAC victory is the dawn of a new age, or the beginning of the end; David Harsanyi on the Ron Paul Delusion: Why the Texas congressman does not represent the future of conservatism; and Jacob Sullum on the unfulfilled promise of “constitutional conservatism”. Christopher Buckley (politely) takes on his first cousin, Brent Bozell III, and the other signers of the Mount Vernon Statement, for trying to redefine conservatism (and Bozell responds; and more and more and more). An excerpt from George H. Nash's Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of American Conservatism. More and more on We Are Doomed by John Derbyshire.
