HIST 255-01, Conservatism in the United States, Spring 2008

Abstract

This course will provide an introduction to developments in conservative thought and politics in the 20th Century. Students will learn about the roots of American conservatism in the first part of the century and learn how conservatives critiqued the creation of the New Deal, the rise of Stalinist Russia and the threat of communism, and the outbreak of World War II. In studying the postwar era, the class will discuss conflicts between traditionalists and libertarians, Eisenhower’s “modern Republicanism,” conservatives and the Cold War, the campaign of Barry Goldwater, and the conservative response to the civil rights movement, Vietnam and “free love.” Finally, the class will consider the Reagan revolution and its impact on the current state of conservative politics in the United States and suggest directions for conservatism in the 21st Century.