| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 87.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Conservative Revolution: The Movement That Remade America. By Lee Edwards. (New York: Free Press, 1999. viii, 391 pp. $27.50, isbn 0-684-83500-2.)

Lee Edwards, a lifelong conservative activist and author, has offered a strong political history of the conservative movement since 1945. Written with the premise that there was little conservative political activity before 1945, a view open to some debate, Edwards has crafted a narrative history of conservative political organizing around four central figures: Robert A. Taft, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Newt Gingrich. Combining secondary literature on conservatism, archival research, and personal connections (he surveyed over seventy figures in conservative politics), The Conservative Revolution offers a history of conservative politics after 1945 comparable to William Rusher's The Rise of the Right (1984). 1

What made this conservative revolution? Ideas played a crucial role. As George Nash has so ably shown, the modern conservative movement was initially an intellectual one. But ideas were not enough. Action was also necessary, and persons such as Taft, Goldwater, and Reagan provided the leadership necessary to create and sustain the movement. Finally, the collapse of the liberal political order engendered a strong conservative political movement that culminated in victory for Reagan and, eventually, Gingrich. . . .

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