The Death of Conservatism: A Movement and Its Consequences - Sam Tanenhaus Audiobook

Written by Sam Tanenhaus
Read by Alan Sklar
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

The Death of Conservatism

Written by: Sam Tanenhaus
Narrated by: Alan Sklar
Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
Format:
Release Date:09-02-09
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Program Type: Audiobook

Audible Editor Reviews

Actor Alan Sklar’s grave voice is well-suited to this concise political exploration of the trajectory of America’s conservative movement over the course of the past half century. In The Death of Conservatism, Sam Tanenhaus provides a strong, well-organized overview of the history of right-wing conservatives in the United States, outlining the path by which he claims today’s “movement conservatism” was born and rose to power and popularity.

Sklar is an authoritative and articulate performer but manages also to create a truly engaging listening experience, injecting movement and emotion into this intriguing and informative work.

Publisher’s Summary

Sam Tanenhaus’s essay “Conservatism Is Dead” prompted intense discussion and debate when it was published in the New Republic in the first days of Barack Obama’s presidency. Now Tanenhaus, a leading authority on modern politics, has expanded his argument into a sweeping history of the American conservative movement.

For 75 years, he argues, the Right has been split between two factions: consensus-driven “realists,” who believe in the virtue of government and its power to adjust to changing conditions, and movement “revanchists,” who distrust government and society—and often find themselves at war with America itself.

Eventually, Tanenhaus writes, the revanchists prevailed, and the result is the decadent “movement conservatism” of today, a defunct ideology that is “profoundly and defiantly unconservative—in its arguments and ideas, its tactics and strategies, above all in its vision”.

But there is hope for conservatism. It resides in the examples of pragmatic leaders like Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan and thinkers like Whittaker Chambers and William F. Buckley, Jr. Each came to understand that the true role of conservatism is not to advance a narrow ideological agenda but to engage in a serious dialogue with liberalism and join with it in upholding “the politics of stability.” Conservatives today need to rediscover the roots of this honorable tradition. It is their only route back to the center of American politics.

At once succinct and detailed, penetrating and nuanced, The Death of Conservatism is a must-listen for Americans of any political persuasion.

©2009 Sam Tenemhaus; (P)2009 Tantor

What the Critics Say

[This] impeccably well-written book insightfully summarizes the highs and lows of American conservatism over the decades. (Publishers Weekly)