描述
Neoconservatism is more of a disposition than a single political theory but it is an attitude that has had a profound impact on the broader conservative effort in the United States since the Fifties. It is a unique blend of skepticism and fortitude about a host of wideranging issues spanning culture economics and national defense. This book looks at six ampldquoneoconservativeamprdquo intellectualsampmdashIrving Kristol Gertrude Himmelfarb Norman Podhoretz Midge Decter Daniel Bell and Nathan Glazerampmdashand the intellectual influences on their thinking about the defects of communism fascism progressivism the dominant American culture and even capitalism itself. This book looks at the gestation of political criticism within the pages of the neoconservativesamprsquo own writings as well as the books they read and the thinkers they either learned from or came to fear. The book looks at the ways in which the neoconservatives adapted Leninamprsquos formula for success to conservative efforts in the United States arguing that neoconservatism is an ampldquoantiideology ideologyamprdquo in that it considers a ampldquoNew Classamprdquo of professional ideologically motivated reformers to be the greatest problem facing the United States because of their increased efforts to technocratize ordinary life their moral relativism their efforts to usurp human nature and supplant it with their own utopian visions their antiAmericanism and their unwillingness to face imminent dangers threatening the American way of life. The book argues that the neoconservative political strategy is to ampldquotake the fight to the enemy.amprdquo
-
Fruugo ID:
55895627-113342576
-
ISBN:
9780739167571