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Sam Francis

He’s a Key Thinker of the Radical Right, But Is He All That?

Where the rediscovery of Sam Francis goes wrong.
by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on April 11, 2025
Trump and Reagan depicted as two halves of the same face.

The Dark Legacy of Reaganism

Conservatives might be tempted to hold up Reagan as representative of a nobler era. They’d be wrong.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The New Republic on February 19, 2025
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1858.

A Constitutionalist or a Revolutionist?

Which one was Abraham Lincoln?
by Herman Belz via Modern Age on February 17, 2025

Edward C. Banfield and What Conservatism Used to Mean

Hard thinking on difficult and uncomfortable questions about how to keep everything from falling apart.
by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on February 1, 2025
George HW Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon at the Reagan Library opening.
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Jimmy Carter Was a Successful (Conservative) President

Common conceptions of Carter are all wrong because they don’t acknowledge a crucial reality: he was a conservative.
by Paul Matzko via Made By History on December 29, 2024
William F. Buckley, Donald Trump.

The Modern Conservative Tradition and the Origins of Trumpism

Today’s Trumpist radicals are not (small-c) conservatives – but they stand in the continuity of Modern Conservatism’s defining political project.
by Thomas Zimmer via Democracy Americana on December 16, 2024
"Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right" book cover.

The History of Gay Conservatism

LGBTQ voters overwhelmingly went for Harris, but the idea that gay voters are always going to be solidly blue is a myth.
by Roger Lancaster via Damage on December 11, 2024
College students studying in a campus lounge.

What the New Right Learned in School

Many of today's most influential right-wing tactics and arguments have their roots in 1960s-era college campuses.
by Emily M. Brooks via Contingent on November 17, 2024
Brigadier General Smedley Butler.

Genesis of the Modern American Right

During the Great Depression, financial elites translated European fascism into an American form that joined high capital with lower middle-class populism.
by Joseph M. Fronczak, Matthew Wills via JSTOR Daily on September 16, 2024
Ross Perot at a press conference.

Did the Early 1990s Break American Politics?

John Ganz offers a whirlwind tour of the cranks, conservatives, and con artists who helped remake the American right at the turn of the 21st century.
by David Klion via The Nation on July 29, 2024
William F. Buckley Jr. at a press conference.

An Implausible Mr. Buckley

A new PBS documentary whitewashes the conservative founder of National Review.
by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on April 17, 2024
A burning candle in front of the American flag.

The Origins of Conservatism’s ‘Gnostic’ Meme

You can thank Eric Voegelin for the right’s clichéd catchall critique for the left.
by Joshua Tait via The Bulwark on April 12, 2024
Ronald Reagan taking the presidential oath.

The GOP's Lurch to the Right

Past conservative figures seem moderate by today's standards.
by Brian Rosenwald via Smerconish on February 27, 2024
Conservative College Campus Counterprotesters with signs saying "Peace Through Victory in Vietnam."

Modern Conservatism Was Born on College Campuses. So Why Does the GOP Hate Them?

Leaders of the political right learned lessons from the 1960s that still inform the movement today.
by Ian Ward, Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via Politico Magazine on September 4, 2023
A group of students demonstrating during a counterprotest to an ongoing anti–Vietnam War rally.

The Right Uses College Campuses as Its Training Grounds

Conservatives love to bemoan their supposed status as oppressed minorities in universities. But the college campus has long been a key site for the Right.
by Scott Wasserman Stern via Jacobin on August 17, 2023
Black-and-white photograph of President Dwight Eisenhower smiling at camera from his desk

The Effective Conservative Governance of Ike Eisenhower

The conservative successes of the Eisenhower administration have been too quickly forgotten.
by Geoffrey Kabaservice via The American Conservative on October 15, 2022
Abortion opponents hold signs reading "I Vote Pro-life First" outside Supreme Court

Abortion and Partisan Entrenchment

The modern Republican Party has tied itself to Roe v. Wade. With the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, the party is vulnerable to new issues.
by Jack Balkin via Social Science Research Network on September 14, 2022
Photo of Newt Gingrich speaking into a microphone.

To Understand the Modern GOP, Look at the Reactionary ’90s

The most vitriolic and morally panicked conservative figures of the 1990s contributed just as much to modern American conservatism as Ronald Reagan did.
by Paul M. Renfro via Jacobin on August 21, 2022
Cartoon of History of American Slavery book chasing a child.

They Want Your Child!

How right-wing school panics seek to repeal modernity and progress.
by Rick Perlstein via The Forum on July 22, 2022
Painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. By John Turnbull, 1818.

Why the American Founding Must Remain Central to Conservatism

An American conservatism which subtly or directly marginalizes the Founding is on a fast track to a conservatism at odds with America’s roots itself.
by Samuel Gregg via National Review on February 6, 2022
"Impeach Earl Warren" billboard by the John Birch Society.

Rise of the Far-Right Ultras

A new book shows just how porous the dividing line has been between the far right and mainstream conservatism.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via The Nation on January 11, 2022

The Rise of the Elite Anti-Intellectual

For decades, “common sense” has been a convenient framing for conservative ideas. The label hides a more complicated picture.
by Simon Brown via Dissent on August 20, 2021
Condoleezza Rice

Why Aren’t Conservative Women Recognized During Women’s History Month?

The left regularly dismisses such women as less worthy of recognition.
by Kay C. James via The Washington Times on March 1, 2021
Ronald Reagan at a news conference in Los Angeles on Jan. 4, 1965, after announcing that he would run for governor of California.

Long Before QAnon, Ronald Reagan and The GOP Purged John Birch Extremists From The Party

Six decades ago, leaders in the GOP backed away from the conspiracy theories peddled by the leader of the increasingly influential John Birch Society.
by Erick Trickey via Retropolis on January 15, 2021

How the GOP Became the Party of Resentment

Have historians of the conservative movement focused too much on its intellectuals?
by Patrick Iber via The New Republic on August 11, 2020

Daniel Webster, Yankee National Conservative

What 'the forgotten man of American conservatism' has to say about current debates on the right.
by Joseph S. Laughon via The American Conservative on May 12, 2020
William F. Buckley, Jr. being interviewed on What’s Happening Mr. Silver.
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On the Right: NET and Modern Conservatism

In the 1960s, the precursor to PBS explored the burgeoning conservative movement, providing a remarkable window into the history of conservatism.
by Allison Perlman via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on January 22, 2020
Calvin Coolidge receiving statue of boy scout.

A Young Appreciation of the Old Right

Calvin Coolidge and others are bringing together student libertarians and trads, but that doesn't make for a coherent coalition.
by Daniel Bring via The American Conservative on April 17, 2019
Pat Buchanan surrounded by balloons at a campaign rally.

The Year the Clock Broke

How the world we live in already happened in 1992.
by John Ganz via The Baffler on November 5, 2018

Conservatives and Counterrevolutionaries

Lily Geismer reviews the second edition of Corey Robin’s “The Reactionary Mind.”
by Lily Geismer via Los Angeles Review of Books on January 19, 2018
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