Who Stole Conservatism? Capitalism And the Disappearance of Traditional Conservatism (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781440852824)

A compelling explanation of how conservatism is no longer what its founders intended and how it has been transformed into a tool of materialist economics and emptied of much of its original meaning.

During America's 19th-century Gilded Age, free-enterprise capitalist ideas distorted and deeply obscured traditional political conservatism. Conservatism today, argues distinguished historian Mario R. DiNunzio, is a grotesque version of the ideology crafted by its founders, including John Adams in America and Edmund Burke in England.

This compelling book provides a survey of conservative thought and its transformation that originated in the late 19th century, exposing the influence of that transformed conservatism on 20th-century American politics--from Hoover to Goldwater to Reagan and on to the Tea Party. It explains the historical foundations of conservative thought and the radical transformation of conservatism into a vastly different ideology primarily concerned with the defense of unfettered capitalism and extreme rights of individuals, as opposed to the values of traditional conservatism: community, good order, tempered change, and enduring values. DiNunzio challenges conservatives and scholars of conservatism to confront the differences between what passes for conservatism in modern-day American politics and the tenets of the original conservative tradition.

Author: Mario Dinunzio
ISBN-10: 1440852820
ISBN-13: 9781440852824
Publisher: Praeger
Language: English
Published: 07/01/2016
Pages: 192
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.20w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2017