History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America

From the Great War to Thatcher and Reagan

Reba Soffer

First comparative study of conservatism in Britain and America
Examines the influence of historians on the development of conservative ideas
Integrates personal biographies and public careers

History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America

From the Great War to Thatcher and Reagan

Reba Soffer

Description

History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America examines the subjects, motives, and personal and intellectual origins of conservative historians who were also successful public intellectuals. In their search for a persuasive and wide appeal, conservatives depended until at least the 1960s upon history and historians to provide conservative concepts with authority and authenticity. Beginning with the Great War in Britain and the Second World War in America, conservative historians participated actively and influentially in debates about the heart, soul, and especially the mind of conservatism. Particular emphasis is placed on four historians in Britain--F. J. C. Hearnshaw, Keith Feiling, Arthur Bryant, and Herbert Butterfield--and three in America-Daniel Boorstin, Peter Viereck, and Russell Kirk-who developed conservative responses to unprecedented and threatening events both at home and abroad. These historians shared basic assumptions about human nature and society, but their subjects, interpretations, conclusions, and prescriptions were independent and idiosyncratic. Uniquely close to powerful political figures, each historian also spoke directly to a large public, which bought their books, read their contributions to newspapers and journals, listened to them on the radio, and watched them on television.

Provocative and compelling, Reba Soffer's pioneering study provides a comprehensive explanation of the content, context, and consequences of conservative ideas that became dominant in Britain and remained marginal in America until the Reagan ascendancy.

History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America

From the Great War to Thatcher and Reagan

Reba Soffer

Introduction
Part I: Intellectual History, Political thought, and Conservatism
Part II: The Inter-War Decades in Britain
1. Conservatism as a Crusade, F.J.C. Hearnshaw
2. The Attraction of Tory Democracy, Keith Feiling
3. The Phenomenon of Arthur Bryant: Patriotism, Conservatism, and the Greater Public
4. Arthur Bryant, Appeasement and Anti-Semitism
Part III: Post-war Britain
5. Christianity and Conservative Historiography: Hebert Butterfield, Cambridge, and the Greater World
Part IV: Post-war America
6. Conservative History and Social Criticism, 1941 through the 1960s
7. The Americanization of the British Conservative Mind
8. Conservatism and Exceptionalism
Epilogue: The Future of the Conservative Past
Bibliography

History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America

From the Great War to Thatcher and Reagan

Reba Soffer

Author Information

Reba Soffer is Professor of History, Emeritus, at California State University, Northridge.

History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America

From the Great War to Thatcher and Reagan

Reba Soffer

Reviews and Awards

Winner of the 2012 Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies Book Prize

"History, Historians, and Conservatism is an investigation of the role of the past in modern Anglo-American conservative thought that will be of lasting value for scholars pursuing the theme."--Journal of British Studies.

"A dense, complex and penetrating book that explores a neglected area of 20th century history."--Times Higher Education Supplement

"[A] welcome contribution to the existing literature on intellectual history in Anglo-American in the twentieth century."--Contemporary British History

"Soffer's analysis suggests that historiography may provide a more transparent reading of the complex framework of values, assumptions and organizing principles behind modern conservative thought than can be derived from more conventional approaches that focus on the messy world of political action and policy, the guarded pronouncements of politicians, or the obscure language of political theorists and ideologues."--British Scholar

"Soffer's ability and willingness to to dissect the disparate conservative visions of her subjects testifies to the rigor of her scholarship...[Its] greatest contribution [is] to our ongoing reconsiderations of history as a usable past."--Reviews in American History

"Makes a substantial contribution to a sharpened understanding of the relationship between conservatives and visions of national history in the twentieth century...Soffer is both able to provide an insightful look at a diverse set of thinkers who grappled with the new social and economic terrain of the democratic era, and make a contribution to the revived interest in conservatism and the Conservative Party."--20th Century British History

"[Soffer] has made a distinctive contribution to the often ignored history of audiences...[This book] should prove a central reference point for any discussion about presenting history to diverse audiences within and outside of academia."--American Historical Review