The Case for Conservatism

Francis Wilson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138534544
• eBook ISBN: 9781351485524
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Conservatism & Liberalism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Conservative and liberal political impulses have contended throughout the history of the U.S. although there are no major Conservative or Liberal parties in the U.S. Instead, the terms signify general inclinations and prejudices encountered to some degree within all major political parties.In terms of contemporary politics, it is reasonably clear that liberalism and conservatism are meaningful terms. But the dichotomy is subject to much confusion when projected against a wider historical background. Francis Wilson's lectures on conservatism represent a genuinely philosophical approach. He generalizes upon the content of conservative thought without reducing the result to a mere psychological bent or disposition.Francis Wilson's volume was an expression of intellectual renewal of conservative ideas in the post-World War Two period. Initially published in 1951, it gave expression to the body of common belief that then and now constitutes the essence of conservatism. Lucid and temperate, he outlines the principles to which conservatives subscribe and how they have changed. Published in the Library of Conservative Thought series, The Case for Conservatism has continuing relevance to those who seek to understand the intellectual roots of the contemporary revival of conservative public policies.

INDEX

Abbott, Lyman, 63

Adams, Henry, 1

Adams, John, 7, 56, 59

Adams, John Quincy, 59

American Commonwealth, Bryce’s, 25

American Revolution, 57

Amiel, Henri-Frédéric, 50

Arnall, Ellis Gibbs, 28

Bagehot, Walter, 42

Blackstone, Sir William, 21

British Constitution, 6–7, 14, 54, 57

Bryce, James (Lord Bryce), 25, 43

Burke, Edmund, 5, 6, 8, 13–16, 25, 57

Butler, Sir Richard Austen, 48

Calvinism, 50, 62

Capitalism, 64

Carnegie, Andrew, 68, 69

Carver, Thomas N., 67

Catholicism, 17, 23, 62, 63

Chateaubriand, François René, 5

Christianity, 22–23, 48 see also Calvinism;; Catholicism;; Protestantism

Churchill, Winston, 9

Civil War (Confederate War), 9, 27, 55, 59, 64

Clark, John Bates, 66–67

Communism, 62

Congress of the United States, 31–32

Conservatism,

—and democracy, 42–47

—and dualism, 73–74

principles of, 12–23

spirit of, 2–4

Constitution of the United States, 19, 21, 54, 56, 58, 60

Delolme, Jean Louis, 21

Democracy, 20, 41, 42, 45, 60, 97

Democracy in America, Tocqueville’s, 25

Democratic Party, 27–30, 31

Descartes, René, 5

Dewey, Thomas Edmund, 29, 31

Dwight, Timothy, 62

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 49

Enlightenment, 15

Fisher, H. A. L., 53

Franco, Francisco, 48

The Federalist, Madison’s Hamilton’s, and Jay’s, 56, 57, 58

French Revoluti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSACTION EDITION
• ORIGINAL FOREWORD
• THE CONSERVATIVE SPIRIT IN POLITICS
• MUST THE RIGHT GO LEFT?*
• THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE TRADITION
• INDEX