First published 2025
Allan Lichtman examines the American conservative movement across a full century of political history. He argues that the movement's stated principles serve merely as public appeals while masking its true priorities. Lichtman traces conservative leadership from Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover through Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. He includes conservative Democrats who enforced Jim Crow laws in the South. The author contends that conservatives abandon their proclaimed values of free enterprise, limited government, fiscal responsibility, states' rights, law and order, personal morality, and American sovereignty when convenient. Instead, he identifies two consistent threads: traditional Christian values and support for private enterprise rather than truly free markets. Lichtman challenges the view that Trump represents a departure from conservative tradition, arguing instead that Trump fulfills the movement's core nationalist impulses.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, american, political-science, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction
Setting: America, South
Period: 20th Century, 21st Century
376 pages · Hardcover · University of Notre Dame Press
Content warnings: racism