Conservative at the Core: A New History of American Conservatism

Conservative at the Core unpacks the history, rhetoric, and policies of the American conservative movement and probes the truth about what conservatism actually represents.

Allan J. Lichtman investigates the foundations and history of conservative thought to identify and reveal the central crisis that lies at the heart of conservative principles and today’s politics. He explores a century of American conservative politics to demonstrate that professed conservative principles—free enterprise, limited government, fiscal responsibility, states’ rights, law and order, personal morality, and American sovereignty—are dispensable notions for public appeal only. Instead, conservatives have only consistently advanced their version of traditional Christian values and support for private (not free) enterprise.

Lichtman provides a sweeping history of the American conservative movement from the end of World War I to the present day. He draws on leaders like Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Donald J. Trump, and the conservative Democrats responsible for Jim Crow discrimination in the South. Contrary to those who have described Trump as a deviation from professed core principles, Conservative at the Core ultimately argues that Trump and his allies represent the culmination of the American conservative tradition, consistently upholding and fulfilling conservative nationalist values.

© 2025 University of Notre Dame Press (Ebook): 9780268210274

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Ebook: 1 September 2025