The Conservative Sixties

by Dave Farber

The Conservative Sixties tells «the other story» of America in the era of left-wing protests, countercultural experiments, and a civil rights revolution. Ten original historical essays focus on Phyllis Schlafly, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, the John Birch Society, the Minutemen, «Moral Mothers and Goldwater Girls», «Cowboy Conservatives», «National Politics versus Community Interest», «Below-the-Belt Politics», and the «Politics of Law and Order». The Conservative Sixties demonstrates that throughout the 1960s, right-wing activists organized at the grass-roots, re-thought their priorities, discovered new allies, and prepared to defeat liberals in the political and cultural arenas. This history of the 1960s puts the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, and George W. Bush – as well as the conservative turn of Congress and the American people – into historical perspective.

211 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good compilation of essays triangulating the various aspects of the political right during the Sixties. When the anthology appeared, the right was often simply ignored in histories of the decade, so it filled a major need at the time. In part because of the books published by scholars who contribute essays here (Michelle Nickerson, Mary Brennan), the situation has changed quite a bit. If you've kept up with the more recent scholarship, this anthology won't command the same attention it will if the area's new to you. Even if you have kept up, however, there's a lot here that's of value, especially Jeff Roche's essay on "Cowboy Conservatism," and Donald Critchlow's piece on Phyllis Schlafly (who turns out not to be quite the caricature she sometimes became later in her career.)

The take-home is that the right faced great difficulties in reconciling the various currents that recreated conservatism as a movement that would become dominant in many ways by 1980. Libertarians, traditional conservatives, evangelicals and mainstream Republicans didn't have a lot in common other than a shared anti-communism and some degree of anti-statism. From the John Birch society and the Minutement on the far right (good essays by Jonathan Schoenwald and Evelyn Schlatter respectively) to the Regan coalition (Kurt Schuparra), the "rights" struggled to find common ground. Richard Nixon benefited from the cross-currents without really embodying them; there was a great deal in his presidency that horrified most of the conservatives chronicled in the collection.

My one serious criticism of most of the essays is their tendency to downplay the centrality of race in the conservative emergence. Most of the writers take their subjects at their word when they say they weren't racist. In a few cases, I might buy it, but Dan Carter (The Politics of Rage) has provided chapter and verse on just how central white supremacy was, usually in masked form, the the movement.