Bibliography of conservatism in the United States

See also: Timeline of modern American conservatism

This is a bibliography of Conservatism in the United States.

Surveys

• Allitt, Patrick. The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History (2010) excerpt and text search
• Critchlow, Donald T. The Conservative Ascendancy: How the Republican Right Rose to Power in Modern America (2nd ed. 2011)
• Filler, Louis. Dictionary of American Conservatism (Philosophical Library, 1987)
• Frohnen, Bruce et al. eds. American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia (2006) ISBN 1-932236-44-9, the most detailed reference
• Schneider, Gregory. The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution (2009)

Historiography

• Brinkley, Alan. "The Problem of American Conservatism," American Historical Review 99 (April 1994): 409–29.
• Burns, Jennifer. "In Retrospect: George Nash's the Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945," Reviews in American History, Sep 2004, Vol. 32 Issue 3, pp 447–462 in Project MUSE
• Cowie, Jefferson, and Nick Salvatore, "The Long Exception: Rethinking the Place of the New Deal in American History," International Labor & Working-Class History, (2008) 74:3-32; argue the New Deal was a response to depression and did not mark a commitment to a welfare state because America has always been too individualistic
• Dochuk, Darren. "Revival on the Right: Making Sense of the Conservative Moment in Post-World War II American History," History Compass (Sept 2006) 4#4 pp 975–999, doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00341.x
• Kazin, Michael. "The Grass-Roots Right: New Histories of U.S. Conservatism in the Twentieth Century," American Historical Review (February 1992) 97:136-55
• Lewis, Hyman. "Historians and the Myth of American Conservatism" Journal of The Historical Society (2012), 12#1 pp: 27–45. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5923.2011.00354.x
• McGirr, Lisa. "Now That Historians Know So Much about the Right, How Should We Best Approach the Study of Conservatism?" Journal of American History (2011) 98(3): 765-770 doi:10.1093/jahist/jar478
• Moore, Leonard Joseph. "Good Old-Fashioned New Social History and the Twentieth-Century American Right," Reviews in American History (1996) 24#4 pp. 555–573 in Project MUSE
• Phillips-Fein, Kim. "Conservatism: A State of the Field," Journal of American History (Dec 2011) 98#3 pp 723–743, with commentary by Wilfred M. McClay, Alan Brinkley, Donald T. Critchlow, Martin Durham, Matthew D. Lassiter, and Lisa McGirr, and response by Phillips-Fein, pp 744–73 online
• Ponce de Leon, Charles L. "The New Historiography of the 1980s," Reviews in American History, (2008) 36#2 pp 303–31, in Project MUSE
• Ribuffo, Leo P. "Why is There so Much Conservatism in the United States and Why Do So Few Historians Know Anything about It," American Historical Review Vol. 99, No. 2 (Apr., 1994), pp. 438–449 in JSTOR
• Ribuffo, Leo P. "The Discovery and Rediscovery of American Conservatism Broadly Conceived," OAH Magazine of History (2003) 17#2 pp 5–10. doi:10.1093/maghis/17.2.5
• Ribuffo, Leo. "Conservatism and American Politics," Journal of the Historical Society, March 2003, Vol. 3 Issue 2, pp 163–175
• Zelizer, Julian E. "Reflections: Rethinking the History of American Conservatism," Reviews in American History, 38#2 (June 2010), pp. 367–392 doi:10.1353/rah.0.0217

Intellectual history

• de Forest, Jennifer. "Conservatism Goes to College: The Role of Philanthropic Foundations in the Rise of Conservative Student Networks," History of Higher Education Annual, 26 (2007), 103–27.
• Dunn, Charles W. and J. David Woodard; The Conservative Tradition in America Rowman & Littlefield, 1996
• Foner, Eric. "Radical Individualism in America: Revolution to Civil War," Literature of Liberty, vol. 1 no. 3, 1978 pp 1–31 online
• Genovese, Eugene. The Southern Tradition: The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism (1994)
• Gottfried, Paul. The Conservative Movement Twayne, 1993.
• Guttman, Allan. The Conservative Tradition in America Oxford University Press, 1967.
• Kendall, Willmoore, and George W. Carey. "Towards a Definition of 'Conservatism." Journal of Politics 26 (May 1964): 406–22. [: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2127604 in JSTOR]
• Kirk, Russell. The Conservative Mind. Regnery Publishing; 7th edition (2001): ISBN 0-89526-171-5
• Lee, Michael J. Creating Conservatism: Postwar Words that Made an American Movement (2014)
• Langdale, John. Superfluous Southerners: Cultural Conservatism and the South, 1920-1990' (2012)
• Lora, Ronald. Conservative Minds in America Greenwood, 1976.
• Lora, Ronald.; The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America Greenwood Press, 1999 online edition
• Lora, Ronald, and William Henry Longton eds. The Conservative Press in Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century America (1999) online edition
• Lowi, Theodore J. The End of the Republican Era (1995) online review
• Lyons, Paul. American Conservatism: Thinking It, Teaching It. (Vanderbilt University Press, 2009). 202 pp. ISBN 978-0-8265-1626-8
• Mergel, Sarah Katherine. Conservative Intellectuals and Richard Nixon: Rethinking the Rise of the Right (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); 248 pages; traces Nixon's relations with conservative intellectuals from 1968 to 1974, including those who saw him as a closet liberal.
• Meyer, Frank S. ed. What Is Conservatism? (1964).
• Murphy, Paul V. The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought (2001)
• Nash, George. The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 (2006; 1st ed. 1978) influential history
• Nau, Henry R. Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan (2013)
• Nisbet, Robert A. Conservatism: Dream and Reality. University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
• Rossiter, Clinton. Conservatism in America. 2nd ed. Harvard University Press, 1982.
• Thorne, Melvin J. American Conservative Thought since World War II: The Core Ideas (1990) online edition
• Viereck; Peter. Conservatism: from John Adams to Churchill (2nd ed. 1978)

Political activity

• Aberbach, Joel D., and Gillian Peele, eds. Crisis of Conservatism?: The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, and American Politics After Bush (2011) excerpt and text search
• Critchlow, Donald T. When Hollywood Was Right: How Movie Stars, Studio Moguls, and Big Business Remade American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
• Cunningham, Sean P. American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt: Conservative Growth in a Battleground Region (Cambridge UP, 2014)
• Cunningham, Sean P. Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right. (2010).
• Hart, Jeffrey. The Making of the American Conservative Mind: The National Review and Its Times (2005)
• Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order: 1964–1980 (2009) excerpt and text search
• Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution 1980–1989 (2009) excerpt and text search
• Kabaservice, Geoffrey. Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party (2012) scholarly history excerpt and text search
• McDonald, Forrest. States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776–1876 (2002)
• Malsberger, John W. From Obstruction to Moderation: The Transformation of Senate Conservatism, 1938–1952 (2000).
• Nickerson, Michelle M. Mothers of Conservatism: Women and the Postwar Right (Princeton University Press, 2012), 248pp
• Patterson, James. Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933–39 (1967)
• Perlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2004) on 1964
• Perlstein, Rick (2008). Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-4302-5.
• Reinhard, David W.; Republican Right since 1945 University Press of Kentucky, 1983 online edition
• Ribuffo, Leo P. The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War (1983) online edition
• Scanlon, Sandra, "The Conservative Lobby and Nixon's 'Peace with Honor' in Vietnam," Journal of American Studies 43 (Aug. 2009), 255–76.
• Schweikart, Larry, and Michael Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror (2004), 930pp; the most thorough textbook from an explicitly conservative viewpoint excerpt and text search
• Shelley II, Mack C. The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress (1983)
• Wilensky, Norman N. Conservatives in the Progressive Era: The Taft Republicans of 1912 (1965).

Biographical

• Bogus, Carl T. Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism (2011) excerpt and text search
• Critchlow, Donald T. Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade (2005)
• Crunden, Robert M. The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock (1964)
• Dierenfield, Bruce J. Keeper of the Rules: Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia (1987), leader of the Conservative coalition in Congress
• Fite, Gilbert. Richard B. Russell, Jr, Senator from Georgia (2002) leader of the Conservative coalition in Congress
• Goldberg, Robert Alan. Barry Goldwater (1995)
• Judis, John B. William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives (1988) excerpt and text search
• Kelly, Daniel. James Burnham and the Struggle for the World: A Life (2002)
• Link, William A. (2008). Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-35600-5.
• Lurie, Jonathan, William Howard Taft: The Travails of a Progressive Conservative (2011) excerpt and text search
• Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft (1972)
• Rodgers, Marion Elizabeth. Mencken: The American Iconoclast (2005)
• Federici , Michael P. Eric Voegelin: The Restoration of Order (2002)
• Pemberton, William E. Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan (1998)
• Smant, Kevin J. Principles and Heresies: Frank S. Meyer and the Shaping of the American Conservative Movement (2002) (ISBN 1-882926-72-2)
• Smith, Richard Norton. An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover (1994) strongest on 1933–64
• Tanenhaus, Sam. Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (1997) (ISBN 0-394-58559-3)
• Chambers, Whittaker, Witness (1952), a memoir his Communist years; primary source

Recent politics

• Bader, John B. Taking the Initiative: Leadership Agendas in Congress and the "Contract with America" (1996) online edition
• Berkowitz, Peter . Varieties Of Conservatism In America (2004)
• Collins, Robert M. Transforming America: Politics and Culture During the Reagan Years, (2007).
• Ehrman, John. The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan (2008)
• Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan, 1964–1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order (2001)
• Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980–1989 (2009) excerpt and text search
• Himmelstein, Jerome and J. A. McRae Jr., "'Social Conservatism, New Republicans and the 1980 Election'", Public Opinion Quarterly, 48 (1984), 595–605.
• Micklethwait, John, and Adrian Wooldridge. The Right Nation (2004) excerpt and text search, overview by British journalists
• Geoffrey Nunberg, "Language and Politics"
• Rae; Nicol C. Conservative Reformers: The Republican Freshmen and the Lessons of the 104th Congress (1998) online edition
• Rasmussen, Scott, and Doug Schoen. Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System (2010) by two pollsters
• Schoenwald; Jonathan. A Time for Choosing: The Rise of Modern American Conservatism (2002) excerpt and text search
• Zernike, Kate. Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America (2010), by a New York Times reporter

Libertarians

• Bessner, Daniel. "Murray Rothbard, political strategy, and the making of modern libertarianism." Intellectual History Review 24#4 (2014): 441-456.
• Burns, Jennifer. Goddess of the market: Ayn Rand and the American right (Oxford University Press, 2009)
• Hamowy, Ronald, ed. The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (2008)
• Keckler, Charles, and Mark J. Rozell. "The Libertarian Right and the Religious Right." Perspectives on Political Science 44#.2 (2015): 92-99.
• Sager, Ryan. The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party (Wiley, 2006)
• Waldenmaier, Jacob Louis. "Mystique of the Intellectual: Heroes of Ayn Rand's Dystopias and Ron Paul's Revolution." Jefferson Journal of Science and Culture 3 (2013). online

Neoconservatism

• Bloom, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind (1988) excerpt and text search
• Fukuyama, Francis. America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy (2007)
• Gerson, Mark. The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to Culture Wars (1997)
• Halper, Stefan & Clarke, Jonathan, America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge University Press, 2004) ISBN 0-521-83834-7
• Stelzer, Irwin. Neo-conservatism (2004)

Critical views

• Bell, David. ed, The Radical Right. Doubleday 1963.
• Diamond, Sara. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. (1995)
• Huntington, Samuel P. "Conservatism as an Ideology." American Political Science Review 52 (June 1957): 454–73.
• Koopman; Douglas L. Hostile Takeover: The House Republican Party, 1980–1995 Rowman & Littlefield, 1996
• Lapham, Lewis H. "Tentacles of Rage" in Harper's, September 2004, p. 31–41.
• Coser Lewis A., and Irving Howe, eds. The New Conservatives: A Critique from the Left New American Library, 1976.
• Martin, William. 1996. With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, New York: Broadway Books.
• Riebling, Mark, "Prospectus for a Critique of Conservative Reason."
• Schulman, Bruce J. and Julian E. Zelizer, eds. Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s (2008)

Social science approachyes

• Aberbach, Joel D. "Understanding American Political Conservatism." in Robert A. Scott and Stephen M. Kosslyn, eds. Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Interdisciplinary, Searchable, and Linkable Resource (2015). DOI: 10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0373
• Alexander, Gerard. "The Fog of Political War: Predicting the Future Course of Conservatism." Journal of Policy History (2014) 26#1 pp: 121-137. online analysis of projected demographic trends
• Gross, Neil, Thomas Medvetz, and Rupert Russell. “The Contemporary American Conservative Movement.” Annual Review of Sociology (2011) 37 pp 325-354 online doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150050
• Perrin, Andrew J., J. Micah Roos, and Gordon W. Gauchat. "From Coalition to Constraint: Modes of Thought in Contemporary American Conservatism." Sociological Forum (2014) 29#2 pp 285-300 DOI: 10.1111/socf.12084

Primary sources

• Buckley, William F., Jr., ed. Up from Liberalism Stein and Day, (1958)
• Buckley, William F., Jr., ed. Did You Ever See a Dream Walking? American Conservative Thought in the 20th Century Bobbs-Merrill, (1970)
• Mark Gerson, ed., The Essential Neo-Conservative Reader (Perseus Publishing, (1997)) ISBN 0-201-15488-9
• Irving Kristol, Neoconservatism: the Autobiography of an Idea, ISBN 0-02-874021-1
• Gregory L. Schneider, ed. Conservatism in America Since 1930: A Reader (2003)
• Irwin Stelzer ed. The NeoCon Reader (2005) ISBN 0-8021-4193-5
• Wolfe, Gregory. Right Minds: A Sourcebook of American Conservative Thought. Regnery, (1987)