American Conservatism’s Hundred-Year War . . .

In The Imaginative Conservative, Chuck Chalberg reviews one of the most talked-about books in conservatism today: Matthew Continetti’s The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism. 

Continetti’s sweeping history goes deep on figures you know well: ISI founder William F. Buckley Jr., Russell Kirk, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and more. 

But it also leads in some surprising directions.

For instance: Continetti suggests that there are many surprising parallels between Donald Trump and Calvin Coolidge. 

Continetti’s story of American conservatism, Chalberg argues, is ultimately about “battles between its elites and the masses . . . and among its elites over how to deal with the masses.” 

How does that grand narrative help us make sense of conservatism today? Read Chalberg’s detailed review for a fuller picture.

. . . and the battles that tear us apart today. 

Dr. Kevin D. Roberts asks: When and why did the battle for conservatism turn into a Hunger Games-style battle royale?  

As long as conservatives aim not to build or to establish principles but to instead “own” each other on social media, the movement totters on shifting sands.  

Roberts is president of the Heritage Foundation—one of the key institutions of the past century of American conservatism—and recently accepted an invitation to join ISI’s board.  

You shouldn’t miss his rousing call to build a new, winning conservatism.

In another piece, in honor of Father’s Day, Roberts paints a stark picture of the catastrophic consequences of fatherlessness in America. 

Teen suicide . . . homelessness . . . substance abuse . . . imprisonment . . . all point back primarily to single-parent homes.  

“It turns out, dads are just one more thing our failed elite class was wrong about,” Roberts writes. 

Conservatives today must stop the in fighting. It’s time to rebuild our broken culture.

American Economic Forum: July 29-30, Washington, D.C.

ISI invites you to our 2022 American Economic Forum, to be held July 29-30 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., to hear leading conservative politicians, intellectuals, and thought leaders debate the best way for conservatives in 2022 to apply fundamental economic principles to our current crises.

For a limited time, students register for free. And if you’re under 30, weekend tickets are only $50.
 

The speakers include:

• Congressman Jim Banks
• Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts
• Former Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer
• Acton Institute Research Director Dr. Samuel Gregg
• ResPublica Director Phillip Blond
• And many more

You’ll hear panel discussions on a range of important topics, including: cronyism in the administrative state, China geonomics, big tech censorship, woke capital, middle-class prosperity, and more.

This is a conversation you don’t want to miss.
 

Hugh Hefner and William F. Buckley Jr.: Two Very Different Legacies

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