Russell Kirk and the Age of IdeologyUniversity of Missouri Press, 2004 - 243 Seiten Russell Kirk, author of The Conservative Mind and A Program for Conservatives, has been regarded as one of the foremost figures of the post-World War II revival in conservative thought. While numerous commentators on contemporary political thought have acknowledged his considerable influence on the substance and direction of American conservatism, no analysis of his social and political writing has dealt extensively with the philosophical foundations of his work. In this provocative study, W. Wesley McDonald examines those foundations and demonstrates their impact on the conservative intellectual movement that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. Kirk played a pivotal role in drawing conservatism away from the laissez-faireprinciplesoflibertarianism and toward those of a traditional community grounded in a renewed appreciation of man's social and spiritual nature and the moral prerequisites of genuine liberty. In a humane social order, a community of spirit is fostered in which generations are bound together. According to Kirk, this link is achieved through moral and social norms that transcend the particularities of time and place and, because they form the basis of genuine civilized existence, can only be neglected at great peril. These norms, reflected in religious dogmas, traditions, humane letters, social habit and custom, and prescriptive institutions, create the sources of the true community that is the final end of politics. Although this study does not challenge Kirk's debts to a predominantly Catholic and Anglo-Catholic tradition of natural law, its focus is on his appeal to historical experience as the test of sound institutions. This aspect of his thought was essential to Kirk's understanding of moral, cultural, and aesthetic norms and can be seen in his responses to American humanists Paul Elmer More and Irving Babbitt and to English and American romantic literature.Russell Kirk and the Age of Ideology is particularly relevant because of the growing interest in Kirk's legacy and the current debate over the meaning of conservatism. McDonald addresses both of those developments in the context of examining Kirk's thought, attempting to correct some of the inadequacies contained in earlier studies that assess Kirk as a political thinker. This book will serve as a significant contribution to the commentary on this fascinating figure. |
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Seite ix
... political movement . I hope that my examination of his social and political thought will cor- rect misperceptions about Kirk's legacy and lead to an appreciation of his teachings by those who eschew partisan politics . Insofar as my ...
... political movement . I hope that my examination of his social and political thought will cor- rect misperceptions about Kirk's legacy and lead to an appreciation of his teachings by those who eschew partisan politics . Insofar as my ...
Seite x
... political thought. During this time I took the liberty of contacting Kirk to ask him some routine questions about his work—the usual sort of request I assumed that he must have often received from other students and readers. What books ...
... political thought. During this time I took the liberty of contacting Kirk to ask him some routine questions about his work—the usual sort of request I assumed that he must have often received from other students and readers. What books ...
Seite xii
... political thought . While performing my duties as his research assistant , I used his library to begin my work on a study of his social and political thought . Since Kirk was often away on lecture tours , we assistants were left PREFACE ...
... political thought . While performing my duties as his research assistant , I used his library to begin my work on a study of his social and political thought . Since Kirk was often away on lecture tours , we assistants were left PREFACE ...
Seite 3
... political leaders expressed gratitude to him . Barry Goldwater , the 1964 Republican candidate for the presidency , declared that in ad- dition to Friedrich A. von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom , “ Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind ...
... political leaders expressed gratitude to him . Barry Goldwater , the 1964 Republican candidate for the presidency , declared that in ad- dition to Friedrich A. von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom , “ Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind ...
Seite 4
... politics done a better job analyzing a clear- cut body of political thought that lay behind ” John Randolph of Roanoke . Samuel Flagg Bemis , “ Precursor of Secession , ” review of Randolph of Roanoke : A Study in Conservative Thought ...
... politics done a better job analyzing a clear- cut body of political thought that lay behind ” John Randolph of Roanoke . Samuel Flagg Bemis , “ Precursor of Secession , ” review of Randolph of Roanoke : A Study in Conservative Thought ...
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
abstract AGE OF IDEOLOGY AMERICAN CONSERVATISM American political aristocracy Aristotle Benthamite Bohemian Tory Burke's civil social Claes Ryn COMMUNITY AND FREEDOM Conservative Intellectual Movement Conservative Mind conservative movement contemporary critics cultural Decadence and Renewal defense doctrines dogmas economic Edmund Burke enduring essay ethical existence experience forces genuine Gottfried higher learning human nature Ibid impulses individual inner check institutions intuition Irving Babbitt John Kirk believed Kirk's LEADERSHIP AND EDUCATION liberal libertarians liberty literature live man's Meyer Mises modern moral imagination National Review natural law neoconservatives norms Paul Elmer Paul Gottfried Permanent Things Peter Viereck philosophical political thought prescription principles Program for Conservatives radical rational reason REBIRTH OF AMERICAN reform Regnery Review Revolution Right Roots Rossiter Rousseau RUSSELL KIRK sense social order society SOUL AND COMMONWEALTH spiritual standards T. S. Eliot teaching thinkers tion tive transcendent University utilitarian Viereck wisdom wrote Zoll