Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I The Emergence of the American Essay (1710–1865)
- Part II Voicing the American Experiment (1865–1945)
- Part III Postwar Essays and Essayism (1945–2000)
- 20 The Essay and the Twentieth-Century Literary Magazine
- 21 Germans in Amerika: Written Possibility, Uninhabitable Reality
- 22 The Essay and the American Left
- 23 The Native American Essay
- 24 Conservatism and the Essay
- 25 Opinions and Decisions: Legal Essays
- 26 World War Two to #MeToo: The Personal and the Political in the American Feminist Essay
- 27 Self-Portraits in a Convex Mirror: The Essay in American Poetry
- 28 The American Essay and (Social) Science
- 29 Philosophy as a Kind of Writing
- 30 The Essay and Literary Postmodernism: Seriousness and Exhaustion
- Part IV Toward the Contemporary American Essay (2000–2020)
- Recommendations for Further Reading
- Index
24 - Conservatism and the Essay
from Part III - Postwar Essays and Essayism (1945–2000)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2024
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- The Cambridge History of the American Essay
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on Contributors
- Introduction
- Part I The Emergence of the American Essay (1710–1865)
- Part II Voicing the American Experiment (1865–1945)
- Part III Postwar Essays and Essayism (1945–2000)
- 20 The Essay and the Twentieth-Century Literary Magazine
- 21 Germans in Amerika: Written Possibility, Uninhabitable Reality
- 22 The Essay and the American Left
- 23 The Native American Essay
- 24 Conservatism and the Essay
- 25 Opinions and Decisions: Legal Essays
- 26 World War Two to #MeToo: The Personal and the Political in the American Feminist Essay
- 27 Self-Portraits in a Convex Mirror: The Essay in American Poetry
- 28 The American Essay and (Social) Science
- 29 Philosophy as a Kind of Writing
- 30 The Essay and Literary Postmodernism: Seriousness and Exhaustion
- Part IV Toward the Contemporary American Essay (2000–2020)
- Recommendations for Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter tracks the changes to the American conservative movement that have unfolded since the heyday of William F. Buckley, who founded the conservative magazine National Review in 1955. Centered on Buckley’s defiance of all things left wing and on his provocative writings on welfare, critiques of the New Deal, and Cold War anxieties, this chapter shows the conflicted relationship many contemporary American conservatives have with his legacy. "Serious conservatives" who place themselves in Buckley’s lineage find themselves alienated in the contemporary media landscape, which, although displaying the same incendiary spirit as Buckley’s essays and his television show Firing Line, lacks the intellectual seriousness that many found in his writings. More generally, this chapter identifies the recurrent themes in conservative writing and dwells on the agitational poetics of conservative essayism.
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- The Cambridge History of the American Essay , pp. 410 - 424Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023