In the fourth installment of our summer series on “What Is the Right?,” Peter explores the traditionalist wing of conservatism.
At a quick glance, you might describe Traditionalist Conservatives as the social conservatives in the postwar coalition that culminated in the Reaganism of the ’80s. But that’s probably a little bit simplistic. On the landscape of the Right, the Traditionalists can be found on the opposite end of the spectrum from Libertarians. Order, virtue, and continuity with the past are of greater concern to the Traditionalists than unleashing the free market or ensuring government sticks to protecting life, liberty, and property. Conserving the principles of the American Founding is buttressed by the preservation of the Western Tradition and its tension between freedom and order.
The episode features Daniel McCarthy and Luke Sheahan. Daniel is Vice President for Publications at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Editor of ISI’s Modern Age, which was launched by Russell Kirk and Henry Regnery in 1957 as a forum for conservatives of various stripes to debate their ideas. Luke is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Duquesne University, and a nonresident scholar in the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also editor of The University Bookman, the online journal of book reviews published by the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal.
