The Last Best Hope: A History of American Realism

by John Hulsman

In this brilliant exploration of American history and contemporary conservative politics, foreign policy expert John Hulsman draws on his years at the heart of Washington to present a compelling new vision of conservative realism. In our current Age of Insecurity, Hulsman suggests, there has never been a bigger need for the re-ascendance of realist principles in conservative circles. By drawing on U.S. history to illustrate realist precepts at the heart of the American story, The Last Best Hope provides a practical, realist foreign policy for a new age of American politics. There has never been a greater time to re-claim the primacy of conservative thought. By fusing the populist Jacksonian base of the GOP with the more libertarian Jeffersonian school of thought, this cogently argued manifesto hopes to grasp that opportunity, and to act as a clarion call for a new dominant realist foreign policy.

240 pages, Paperback

Published January 11, 2024

Reviews

[Ted Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book functions as a collection of parables about how to make good U.S. foreign policy decisions. It covers key moments where George Washington, John Quincy Adams, William Seward, William Borah, FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, Nixon, and Reagan all acted decisively to make hard choices, but ones which benefitted the United States.

My favorite chapters where the Washington, Seward, and JFK chapters. Washington was faced with the tough choice of siding with the British over the French in the Jay Treaty. Seward acted to appease the British, so that the Union could focus on defeating the Confederacy and win the U.S. Civil War. And Kennedy acted against the judgment of his military advisors to make a secret deal with the Soviet Union and to end the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Hulsman does an excellent job articulating how each of these decisions were made with considerations to realism and how often the U.S. national interest is neglected by decisionmakers, who care more about public opinion and who have a higher view on their ability to always get what they want. This is a great intellectual history that will appeal to center-right folks and even some progressives who will admire the inclusion of FDR and Kennedy.