The Neoconservatives: The Origins of a Movement

In 1979, Peter Steinfels identified a new movement and predicted it would be the decade's most enduring legacy to American politics. In a new Introduction he describes its evolution from a reaction to Sixties' social change into an entrenched political force promoting an assertive, even belligerent, foreign policy.More than three decades ago, in The Neoconservatives, Peter Steinfels described a nascent movement, predicting that it would be the sixties' "most enduring legacy to American politics." Now, in a new foreword to that portrait, he traces neoconservatism's fateful transformation. What was a movement of dissenting intellectuals creating a new, modern kind of conservatism became a phalanx of political insiders urging the nation to flex its muscles overseas. The Neoconservatives describes the founders of the movement, disenchanted liberals recoiling from the turmoil of the sixties, a decline in authority, and a loss of tough-minded leadership at home and abroad. Written contemporaneously to the birth of a movement that would profoundly mark American history, The Neoconservatives holds clues, Stein-fels argues, to how and why neoconservatism swerved from its original promise even as it successfully implanted itself as an influential and aggressive element in our politics. This is a landmark book, "an important contribution to understanding the influence of ideas on American politics" (Congress Monthly).

Author: Peter Steinfels
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 11/19/2013
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.45h x 5.50w x 1.02d
ISBN13: 9781476728834
ISBN10: 1476728836
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | Political Ideologies | Conservatism & Liberalism
- History | United States | 20th Century
- Political Science | History & Theory | General