First-Year Seminar: Conservatism in Theory and Practice

Catalog description

In this freshman seminar, we will examine the history of conservative ideas from their origin in the wake of the French Revolution on down to the American present. We will also take note of how these ideas have been implemented in practice when their champions have gained and held political power. We will begin the semester by examining the ideas of such 18th-century thinkers as Edmund Burke and Joseph de Maistre. Then we will turn to the American “Old Right” of the early 20th century and the postwar “New Right” that culminated in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The class will conclude by looking at the rise of the populist right in recent decades and ask whether it represents a continuation of earlier forms of conservatism or amounts to a radical break with them. Students will be expected to come to class conversant in the assigned readings and prepared to discuss them.