Crisis of Conservatism?: The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, and American Politics After Bush

Crisis of Conservatism? assesses the status of American conservatism--its politics, its allies in the Republican Party, and the struggle for the soul of the conservative movement. This struggle became especially acute with the controversial policies of the Bush administration and Republican losses in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

The book's contributors, a broad array of leading scholars of conservatism, identify a range of tensions in the conservative movement and the Republican Party, tensions over what conservatism is and should be, over what conservatives should do when in power, and over how conservatives should govern. While the conservative movement remains beset by many problems and divisions, it has fundamental strengths. Crisis of Conservatism? reveals the many varieties of conservatism and examines the internal conflicts, strengths and challenges that will define the movement in the future.

Joel D. Aberbach is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Gillian Peele is Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.