The Rise of Common-Sense Conservatism
The American Right and the Reinvention of the Scottish Enlightenment
9780226774046
9780226774183
The Rise of Common-Sense Conservatism
The American Right and the Reinvention of the Scottish Enlightenment
Publication supported by the Meijer Foundation Fund
In the years following the election of Donald Trump—a victory that hinged on the votes of white Midwesterners who were both geographically and culturally distant from the media’s coastal concentrations—there has been a flurry of investigation into the politics of the so-called “common man.” The notion that the salt-of-the-earth purity implied by this appellation is best understood by conservative politicians is no recent development, though. As Antti Lepistö shows in his timely and erudite book, the intellectual wellsprings of conservative “common sense” discourse are both older and more transnational than has been thought.
In considering the luminaries of American neoconservative thought—among them Irving Kristol, Gertrude Himmelfarb, James Q. Wilson, and Francis Fukuyama—Lepistö argues that the centrality of their conception of the common man accounts for the enduring power and influence of their thought. Intriguingly, Lepistö locates the roots of this conception in the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment, revealing how leading neoconservatives weaponized the ideas of Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and David Hume to denounce postwar liberal elites, educational authorities, and social reformers. Their reconfiguration of Scottish Enlightenment ideas ultimately gave rise to a defining force in modern conservative politics: the common sense of the common man. Whether twenty-first-century politicians who invoke the grievances of “the people” are conscious of this unusual lineage or not, Lepistö explains both the persistence of the trope and the complicity of some conservative thinkers with the Trump regime.
In considering the luminaries of American neoconservative thought—among them Irving Kristol, Gertrude Himmelfarb, James Q. Wilson, and Francis Fukuyama—Lepistö argues that the centrality of their conception of the common man accounts for the enduring power and influence of their thought. Intriguingly, Lepistö locates the roots of this conception in the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment, revealing how leading neoconservatives weaponized the ideas of Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, and David Hume to denounce postwar liberal elites, educational authorities, and social reformers. Their reconfiguration of Scottish Enlightenment ideas ultimately gave rise to a defining force in modern conservative politics: the common sense of the common man. Whether twenty-first-century politicians who invoke the grievances of “the people” are conscious of this unusual lineage or not, Lepistö explains both the persistence of the trope and the complicity of some conservative thinkers with the Trump regime.
288 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2021
History: American History, History of Ideas
Philosophy: Political Philosophy
Political Science: Political and Social Theory
Reviews
Table of Contents
Introduction: Speaking for the People in Culture Wars–Era America
Chapter 1. The Coming of the Neoconservative Common Man
Chapter 2. James Q. Wilson and the Rehabilitation of Emotions
Chapter 3. Family Values as Moral Intuitions: Neoconservatives and the War over the Family
Chapter 4. Moral Sentiments of the Black Underclass: Race in the Neoconservative Moral Imagination
Chapter 5. Retributive Sentiments and Criminal Justice: James Q. Wilson on Crime and Punishment
Chapter 6. Elite Multiculturalism and the Spontaneous Morality of Everyday People: Francis Fukuyama’s Culture Wars
Epilogue: Neoconservative Culture Warriors and the Boundaries of the People
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
The Ordinary American as a Neoconservative Concept and Moral Authority
Neoconservatives and Populist Persuasion
The Neoconservative Culture Wars
Neoconservatives and Populist Persuasion
The Neoconservative Culture Wars
Chapter 1. The Coming of the Neoconservative Common Man
The Rise of Neoconservatism and the Idea of Democratic Decadence
The Economic Crisis of the 1970s and the Neoconservative Discovery of Adam Smith
The Morality of Ordinary People in Scottish Philosophy
Irving Kristol on Shared Moral Sentiments and the Bourgeois Way of Life
The Sentimentalist Enlightenment: A Neoconservative Interpretation
Speaking for Average White Americans: Neoconservatives and the Republican Party
The Economic Crisis of the 1970s and the Neoconservative Discovery of Adam Smith
The Morality of Ordinary People in Scottish Philosophy
Irving Kristol on Shared Moral Sentiments and the Bourgeois Way of Life
The Sentimentalist Enlightenment: A Neoconservative Interpretation
Speaking for Average White Americans: Neoconservatives and the Republican Party
Chapter 2. James Q. Wilson and the Rehabilitation of Emotions
Emotions as a Way of Knowing
How Ordinary People Think
The Man within the Average Joe’s Breast
How Ordinary People Think
The Man within the Average Joe’s Breast
Chapter 3. Family Values as Moral Intuitions: Neoconservatives and the War over the Family
The Emergence of Family Values as a Neoconservative Theme
The New Era of Sentiment in American Politics: Irving Kristol’s Family Wars
The Moral Sense as a Policy Compass: James Q. Wilson on Abortion and Gay Marriage
A Neoconservative Philosophy of Moral Education
The Battle over Nonjudgmentalism and the New Definitions of Deviancy
The New Era of Sentiment in American Politics: Irving Kristol’s Family Wars
The Moral Sense as a Policy Compass: James Q. Wilson on Abortion and Gay Marriage
A Neoconservative Philosophy of Moral Education
The Battle over Nonjudgmentalism and the New Definitions of Deviancy
Chapter 4. Moral Sentiments of the Black Underclass: Race in the Neoconservative Moral Imagination
The Discovery of the Underclass: Urban Decay as a Question of Character
The Wise and Virtuous Everyman and Other Americans in James Q. Wilson’s The Moral Sense
A Poor Man’s Moral Sense and the Ethic of Self-Help
The Wise and Virtuous Everyman and Other Americans in James Q. Wilson’s The Moral Sense
A Poor Man’s Moral Sense and the Ethic of Self-Help
Chapter 5. Retributive Sentiments and Criminal Justice: James Q. Wilson on Crime and Punishment
The Mid-1990s Tough-on-Crime Frenzy and Wilson’s Penal Populism
Moral Sentiments and Criminal Justice
Neoconservative Moral Sentimentalism, Color Blindness, and Mass Incarceration
Moral Sentiments and Criminal Justice
Neoconservative Moral Sentimentalism, Color Blindness, and Mass Incarceration
Chapter 6. Elite Multiculturalism and the Spontaneous Morality of Everyday People: Francis Fukuyama’s Culture Wars
Straussian Cultural Pessimists and the Failures of Liberalism
The Liberal Democratic Citizen and the Lost Thymos
Losing the Language of Straussian Pessimism: Fukuyama’s Moral Sense Idea
Fukuyama’s Culture Wars: Elite Multiculturalism versus Popular Moral Sentiments
The Moral Sense and Spontaneous Order: Neoconservative Moralism Meets the Neoliberal Order
The Liberal Democratic Citizen and the Lost Thymos
Losing the Language of Straussian Pessimism: Fukuyama’s Moral Sense Idea
Fukuyama’s Culture Wars: Elite Multiculturalism versus Popular Moral Sentiments
The Moral Sense and Spontaneous Order: Neoconservative Moralism Meets the Neoliberal Order
Epilogue: Neoconservative Culture Warriors and the Boundaries of the People
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Unpublished Primary Sources
Published Primary Sources
Secondary Literature
Published Primary Sources
Secondary Literature
Index