History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America examines the subjects, motives, and personal and intellectual origins of conservative historians who were also successful public intellectuals. In their search for a persuasive and wide appeal, conservatives depended until at least the 1960s upon history and historians to provide conservative concepts with authority and authenticity. Beginning with the Great War in Britain and the Second World War in America, conservative historians participated actively and influentially in debates about the heart, soul, and especially the mind of conservatism. Particular emphasis is placed on four historians in Britain-F. J. C. Hearnshaw, Keith Feiling, Arthur Bryant, and Herbert Butterfield-and three in America-Daniel Boorstin, Peter Viereck, and Russell Kirk-who developed conservative responses to unprecedented and threatening events both at home and abroad. These historians shared basic assumptions about human nature and society, but their subjects, interpretations, conclusions, and prescriptions were independent and idiosyncratic. Uniquely close to powerful political figures, each historian also spoke directly to a large public, which bought their books, read their contributions to newspapers and journals, listened to them on the radio, and watched them on television. Provocative and compelling, Reba Soffer's pioneering study provides a comprehensive explanation of the content, context, and consequences of conservative ideas that became dominant in Britain and remained marginal in America until the Reagan ascendancy.
Reviews
A compelling examination of the work and influence of several British and American historians on convervatism during the twentieth century. * British Scholar *
A dense, complex and penetrating book that explores a neglected area of 20th century history * A.W. Purdue, Times Higher Education Supplement *
...a welcome contribution to the existing literature on intellectual history in Anglo-American in the twentieth century * Rachel S. Turner, Contemporary British History *


Awards
Winner of Winner of the 2012 PCCBS Book Prize for the best book in British Studies for 2010 and 2011..



Book Information
ISBN 9780199208111
Author Reba Soffer
Format Hardback
Page Count 356
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 694g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 163mm * 27mm