Old Right (United States)
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The Old Right is an informal designation used for a branch of American conservatism that was most prominent from 1910 to the mid-1950s, but never became an organized movement. Most members were Republicans, although there was a conservative Democratic element based largely in the Southern United States. They are termed the "Old Right" to distinguish them from their New Right successors who came to prominence in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Most were unified by their defense of
The Old Right
History and views
The Old Right came into being when the
Historian George H. Nash argues:
Unlike the "moderate", internationalist, largely eastern bloc of Republicans who accepted (or at least acquiesced in) some of the "Roosevelt Revolution" and the essential premises of President Truman's foreign policy, the Republican Right at heart was counter-revolutionary. Anti-collectivist, anti-Communist, anti-New Deal, passionately committed to limited government, free market economics, and congressional (as opposed to executive) prerogatives, the G.O.P. conservatives were obliged to wage a constant two-front war: against liberal Democrats from without and "me-too" Republicans from within.[4]
The Old Right emerged in opposition to the New Deal and to FDR personally; it drew from multiple sources. Hoff says, "moderate Republicans and leftover Republican Progressives like Hoover composed the bulk of the Old Right by 1940, with a sprinkling of former members of the Farmer–Labor party, Non-Partisan League, and even a few midwestern prairie Socialists."[5]
By 1937, partisans of the Old Right had formed a Conservative coalition that controlled Congress until 1964.[6] They were consistently non-interventionist and opposed entering World War II, a position exemplified by the America First Committee. Later, most opposed U.S. entry into NATO and intervention in the Korean War. "In addition to being staunch opponents of war and militarism, the Old Right of the postwar period had a rugged and near-libertarian honesty in domestic affairs as well."[7]
This anti-New Deal movement was a coalition of multiple groups: business Republicans like
In his 1986 book Conservatism: Dream and Reality, Robert Nisbet noted the traditional hostility of the right to interventionism and to increases in military expenditure:[15]
Of all the misascriptions of the word 'conservative' during the last four years, the most amusing, in an historical light, is surely the application of 'conservative' to the last-named. For in America throughout the twentieth century, and including four substantial wars abroad, conservatives had been steadfastly the voices of non-inflationary military budgets, and of an emphasis on trade in the world instead of American nationalism. In the two
Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. In all four episodes conservatives, both in the national government and in the rank and file, were largely hostile to intervention; were isolationists indeed.
Internal differences
While outsiders thought Taft was the epitome of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, inside the party he was repeatedly criticized by hard-liners who were alarmed by his sponsorship of
The Southern Agrarian wing drew on some of the values and anxieties being articulated on the anti-modern right, including the desire to retain the social authority and defend the autonomy of the American states and regions, especially the South.
Notable figures
- President William Howard Taft
- President Warren G. Harding
- President Calvin Coolidge
- President Herbert Hoover
- Senator Bennett Champ Clark, of Missouri
- Senator Josiah Bailey, of North Carolina
- Senator Harry F. Byrd, of Virginia
- Senator John W. Bricker, of Ohio
- Representative Howard Buffett, of Nebraska
- Representative Hamilton Fish III, of New York
- John T. Flynn
- William Randolph Hearst[20]
- Raymond C. Hoiles
- Zora Neale Hurston[21][22]
- Albert Jay Nock
- John J. Raskob
- Representative Eugene Siler, of Kentucky
- Governor Al Smith, of New York
- Senator Robert A. Taft, of Ohio
- Senator William E. Jenner, of Indiana
- Senator Kenneth S. Wherry, of Nebraska
- General Robert E. Wood
Legacy
See also
Citations
- Journal of Libertarian Studies. 23: 5–21.
- ^ Allitt, Patrick. The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History (2009), chapter 6
- ^ Rothbard, Murray. The Betrayal of the American Right (2007)
- JSTOR 2702450, quote on p. 261; Nash references David W. Reinhard, The Republican Right since 1945, (University Press of Kentucky, 1983)
- ISBN 978-0316944168.
- JSTOR 1894345.
- ^ Rothbard, Murray. Swan Song of the Old Right, Mises Institute Archived May 12, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ By Troy L. Kickler, "The Conservative Manifesto" North Carolina History Project Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ George Wolfskill, The Revolt of the Conservatives: A History of the American Liberty League 1934–1940 (1962)
- ISBN 978-0307808868.
- ^ Garet Garrett and Bruce Ramsey, Defend America First: The Antiwar Editorials of the Saturday Evening Post, 1939–1942 (2003) excerpt and text search Archived 2014-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ David Nasaw, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (2001)
- ^ Richard Norton Smith, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880–1955 (2003)
- ^ For others see Gary Dean Best, The Critical Press and the New Deal: The Press versus Presidential Power, 1933–1938 (1993) [ISBN missing]
- ^ Prospects of Conservatism, p. 111, in Conservatism: Dream & Reality, at Google Books. Accessed: 26 November 2012.
- ^ Riggenbach, Jeff. "The Mighty Flynn", Liberty January 2006 p. 34
- ^ David W. Reinhard, The Republican Right since 1945, (University Press of Kentucky, 1983) pp. 28, 39–40 [ISBN missing]
- ^ Murphy p. 124
- ^ Paul V. Murphy, The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought (2001) pp. 5, 24
- ^ Rodney P. Carlisle, "William Randolph Hearst: A Fascist Reputation Reconsidered." Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 50#1 (1973): 125–133.
- ^ McWhorter, John, “Thus Spake Zora" Archived 2009-08-16 at the Wayback Machine, City Journal, Summer 2009.
- ^ McWhorter, John (2011-01-04) Why Zora Neale Hurston Was a Conservative Archived 2013-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, The Root
- ^ Antle, W. James III (October 15, 2007). "Making the Old Right New". The American Spectator. Archived from the original on April 12, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2008.
- ^ a b "'America First!' is Current Again". Archived from the original on 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2016-12-30.
- ^ Paleoconservatism, the movement that explains Donald Trump, explained Archived 2022-06-23 at the Wayback Machine, Dylan Matthews (updated), Vox, May 6, 2016.
General references
- Robert Morse Crunden (1999). The superfluous men. Isi Books. ISBN 978-1882926305.
- Cole, Wayne S. America First; The Battle Against Intervention, 1940–41 (1953) [ISBN missing]
- Doenecke, Justus D. "American Isolationism, 1939–1941", Journal of Libertarian Studies, Summer/Fall 1982, 6(3), pp. 201–216. online version
- Doenecke, Justus D. "Literature of Isolationism, 1972–1983: A Bibliographic Guide" Journal of Libertarian Studies, Spring 1983, 7(1), pp. 157–184. online version
- Frohnen, Bruce; Beer, Jeremy; and Nelson, Jeffery O., eds. American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia (2006) [ISBN missing]
- Murphy, Paul V. The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought (2001) [ISBN missing]
- Radosh, Ronald. Prophets on the right: Profiles of conservative critics of American globalism (1978) [ISBN missing]
- Raimondo, Justin. An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (2000) [ISBN missing]
- Raimondo, Justin (1993). Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement. Burlingame, CA: Center for Libertarian Studies. ISBN 9781883959005.
- Ribuffo, Leo. The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War. Temple University Press (1983) [ISBN missing]
- Rothbard, Murray. The Betrayal of the American Right (2007) [ISBN missing]
- Schneider, Gregory L. ed. Conservatism in America Since 1930: A Reader (2003) [ISBN missing]
- Schneider, Gregory L. The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution (2009) pp. 1–38 [ISBN missing]
- Scotchie, Joseph. The Paleoconservatives: New Voices of the Old Right (1999) [ISBN missing]
External links
Media related to Old Right (United States) at Wikimedia Commons
