Boone Ayala > Recent Status Updates

“Anticommunism… was for the most part easily assimilated into the conservative credo of the 1950s. Both libertarians and traditionalists discerned in the “God that failed” a case study for their deepest convictions. Communism was a threat to liberty AND tradition. If conservatism in 1955 was an amalgam, anti communism was a vital part of its cement.”

This is much better than I thought it would be. It’s a touch gimmicky, but for the most part this is just an expert in the field breaking down different themes in the history of the American west. It would make a pretty good 100-level primer on the period

Chapter 2 highlights the heterogeneity of early liberalism, demonstrating the ways that many liberals from 1830-1880 laid the groundwork for key but often conflicting ideas and attempted to work out the tensions.

Liberalism a practice of politics which emerged in the 19th century in response to the tumult of revolution and the onset of industrial capitalism. Fawcett identifies 4 guiding principles: the inevitability of conflict, the possibility of progress, suspicion of power, and respect for individuals

RQ: “In 1945, ‘conservatism’ was not a popular word in America, and its spokesmen were without much influence in their native land. A generation later these once isolated voices had become a chorus, a significant intellectual and political movement which had an opportunity to shape the nation’s destiny.”