DOCSLIB.ORG

Information to Users

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Information to Users INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 A CRITIQUE OF SOME OF WILLIAM J. BENNETT’S VIEWS ON POLITICS, CULTURE, AND VALUES IN SCHOOLING AND SOCIETY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By William Lloyd Fridley, B.S., M.Div., Th.M. sfc * * A * The Ohio State University 1996 Dissertation Committee: G. M. Reagan Approved by R. N. Pratte £>1 /4 M. S. Leach Advisor College of Education UMI Number: 9639237 UMI Microform 9639237 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by William Lloyd Fridley 1996 ABSTRACT In this study I offered a critique of some of William J. Bennett’s views on politics, culture and values in schooling and society. The methodology ofcritique relies heavily on the critical tools and approaches of analytic and normative philosophy as well as bringing in the relevant findings of history, social sciences, and literary theory. I first examined Bennett’s views on the politics of the culture wars. I argue that Bennett acts as a preacher ofcreedal politics. I then examined Bennett's arguments for the primacy and centrality of Western culture In the humanities curriculum. Finally, I discuss some of Bennett’s views on values and moral education. I found Bennett’s views on the politics of the culture wars to be inaccurate and tendentious. I did conclude, however, that Bennett must be regarded as one of the most significant and influential leaders of the conservative political movement. His continuing Influence and importance hinges largely on whether or not he seeks to run for President. Bennett’s calls for a curricular emphasis oncontent, and for the promotion of cultural literacy are commendable. However, Bennett’s arguments for the superiority of Western culture are flawed, and they have anti-educational consequences in theory and practice. Bennett has been an important figure in popularizing the discussion of moral education. His criticisms ofnon-directive approaches to moral education are well taken, but there are significant philosophical problems with Bennett’s views on the existence of objective morality and his contentions on the manifest clarity of thebasics of morality. It also remains to be seen whether Bennett’s approach to character education will be an effective method of promoting virtue in students, and the virtues he prescribes may be more controversial than he acknowledges. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first of all like to thank my parents, Jerald and Phyllis Fridley, for all their help and support. In the Spring of 1981 they paid my first Quarter’s tuition at Ohio State ($412), because they thought I might enjoy higher education. I would like to acknowledge the help of Richard Pratte in guiding this study. He suggested the topical organization of the study, as well as the methodological approach of “critique." Both of these suggestions helped to get this study “off the ground.” I would like to thank Richard Garner for taking an interest in my work and offering some helpful suggestions. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the faithful vigilance of Cheryl and Nicole, “The Paper Patrol.” iii \ VITA March 21, 1961 .......................Born - Columbus, Ohio. 1984 .................................... B.S., Summa Cum Laude, in Social Studies Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 1990 .......................................Master of Divinity, Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake. Indiana. 199 1 .......................................Master of Theology, Cum Laude, in New Testament Studies, Grace Theological Seminary. 1991 -1995 .......................... Graduate Teaching Assistant, College of Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 1977-1996 .............................. Work experience has included: Grocery Clerk, Cashier, Pharmaceutical Technician, Dietary Technician (dishwasher). Janitorial work. Itinerate Preacher, Interim Pastor, Foreign Missionary in London, England, College Theology Teacher, Phone Advertising Editor, Fundraiser, Package Loader, Guitar Player, Song Writer, Recording Artist. FIELD Of STUDY Major Field: Education iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................................... iii VITA ................................................................................................................................................iv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................1 Statement of Problem.......................................................................................... 1 Methodology........................................................................................................ 4 Purpose of The Study and Personal Considerations..................................11 Review of The L ite ra tu re.................................................................................. 16 B o o k s..................................................................................................... 16 Essays, Articles, and R eports ........................................................... 21 In terv iew s............................................................................................ 34 The War on D r u g s...............................................................................36 Limitations of The S tu d y................................................................................ 37 Organization of The S tu d y..............................................................................38 Chapter N otes....................................................................................................41 II. THE POLITICS OF THE CULTURE W A R S ......................................................... 47 Introduction...................................................................................................... 47 Who Is Fighting, And What F o r ?..................................................................47 The Liberal E lite ...............................................................................................50 Identifying The Liberal E lite ..............................................................51 Conceptual Analysis of‘Elite’ ............................................................53 Labeling The “Liberal E lite" ...............................................................55 A Conflict Between E l ite s...................................................................56 Bennett’s Objections to The Liberal E lite .......................................59 The ‘War’ M etaphor......................................................................................... 61 Partisan Politics...............................................................................................64 The New Republican C o a litio n..........................................................65 Neoconservative Intellectuals................................................................... 68 Creedal Politics ................................................................................................. 70 Bennett as P re a c h e r.........................................................................................73 Either-Or C hoices...............................................................................73 Explaining Inconsistencies............................................................... 74 Fighting The D e v il......................................................................... 77 Exhortations, Admonitions, and W arnings................................. 78 S u m m a ry ........................................................................................................... 79 Chapter N otes................................................................................................... 82 III. CULTURE AND THE CURRICULUM...................................................................88
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Union Calendar No. 481 104Th Congress, 2D Session – – – – – – – – – – – – House Report 104–879
    1 Union Calendar No. 481 104th Congress, 2d Session ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± House Report 104±879 REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DURING THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH CONGRESS PURSUANT TO CLAUSE 1(d) RULE XI OF THE RULES OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 2, 1997.ÐCommitted to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 36±501 WASHINGTON : 1997 COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FOURTH CONGRESS HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman 1 CARLOS J. MOORHEAD, California JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., PATRICIA SCHROEDER, Colorado Wisconsin BARNEY FRANK, Massachusetts BILL MCCOLLUM, Florida CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York GEORGE W. GEKAS, Pennsylvania HOWARD L. BERMAN, California HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina RICH BOUCHER, Virginia LAMAR SMITH, Texas JOHN BRYANT, Texas STEVEN SCHIFF, New Mexico JACK REED, Rhode Island ELTON GALLEGLY, California JERROLD NADLER, New York CHARLES T. CANADY, Florida ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia BOB INGLIS, South Carolina MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia XAVIER BECERRA, California STEPHEN E. BUYER, Indiana JOSEÂ E. SERRANO, New York 2 MARTIN R. HOKE, Ohio ZOE LOFGREN, California SONNY BONO, California SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas FRED HEINEMAN, North Carolina MAXINE WATERS, California 3 ED BRYANT, Tennessee STEVE CHABOT, Ohio MICHAEL PATRICK FLANAGAN, Illinois BOB BARR, Georgia ALAN F. COFFEY, JR., General Counsel/Staff Director JULIAN EPSTEIN, Minority Staff Director 1 Henry J. Hyde, Illinois, elected to the Committee as Chairman pursuant to House Resolution 11, approved by the House January 5 (legislative day of January 4), 1995.
    [Show full text]
  • William J. Bennett Is One of America's Most Important, Influential, And
    William J. Bennett is One of America’s Most Important, Influential, and Respected Voices on Cultural, Political, and Education Issues. In his various roles, Dr. Bennett is perceived—even by his adversaries—as a man of strong, reasoned convictions who speaks candidly, eloquently, and honestly about some of the most important issues of our time. Over the course of his professional life, in education, government and the private sector, Dr. Bennett has succeeded in a trifecta of American institutions. He is an award-winning professor in academia, having taught at Boston University, the University of Texas and Harvard; he is a three-time confirmed executive in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations including holding two cabinet-level positions, Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan and the Nation’s first Drug Czar under the first President Bush. He was formerly the host of Morning in America, one of the largest national talk shows in the country, and is now host of The Bill Bennett Show podcast. He is an official Fox News contributor appearing weekly on some of the nation’s highest-rated cable TV shows. He is also an experienced technology entrepreneur, having been the founding Chairman of K12.com a multi-billion dollar online education company. William J. Bennett is One of America’s Most Important, Influential, and Respected Voices on Cultural, Political, and Education Issues. Dr. Bennett has written or co-authored more than 25 books including two New York Times number one best-sellers, one of them being the Book of Virtues, which was one of the most successful books of the 1990s.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking Schools
    Home > Archives > Volume 27 No.4 - Summer 2013 The Trouble with the Common Core BY THE EDITORS OF RETHINKING SCHOOLS Ethan Heitner It isn't easy to find common ground on the Common Core. Already hailed as the “next big thing” in education reform, the Common Core State Standards are being rushed into classrooms in nearly every district in the country. Although these “world-class” standards raise substantive questions about curriculum choices and instructional practices, such educational concerns are likely to prove less significant than the role the Common Core is playing in the larger landscape of our polarized education reform politics. We know there have been many positive claims made for the Common Core: That it represents a tighter set of smarter standards focused on developing critical learning skills instead of mastering fragmented bits of knowledge. That it requires more progressive, student-centered teaching with strong elements of collaborative and reflective learning. That it equalizes the playing field by raising expectations for all children, especially those suffering the worst effects of the “drill and kill” test prep norms of the recent past. We also know that many creative, heroic teachers are seeking ways to use this latest reform wave to serve their students well. Especially in the current interim between the rollout of the standards and the arrival of the tests, some teachers have embraced the Common Core as an alternative to the scripted commercial formulas of recent experience, and are trying to use the space opened up by the Common Core transition to do positive things in their classrooms.
    [Show full text]
  • The Weekly Standard…Don’T Settle for Less
    “THE ORACLE OF AMERICAN POLITICS” — Wolf Blitzer, CNN …don’t settle for less. POSITIONING STATEMENT The Weekly Standard…don’t settle for less. Through original reporting and prose known for its boldness and wit, The Weekly Standard and weeklystandard.com serve an audience of more than 3.2 million readers each month. First-rate writers compose timely articles and features on politics and elections, defense and foreign policy, domestic policy and the courts, books, art and culture. Readers whose primary common interests are the political developments of the day value the critical thinking, rigorous thought, challenging ideas and compelling solutions presented in The Weekly Standard print and online. …don’t settle for less. EDITORIAL: CONTENT PROFILE The Weekly Standard: an informed perspective on news and issues. 18% Defense and 24% Foreign Policy Books and Arts 30% Politics and 28% Elections Domestic Policy and the Courts The value to The Weekly Standard reader is the sum of the parts, the interesting mix of content, the variety of topics, type of writers and topics covered. There is such a breadth of content from topical pieces to cultural commentary. Bill Kristol, Editor …don’t settle for less. EDITORIAL: WRITERS Who writes matters: outstanding political writers with a compelling point of view. William Kristol, Editor Supreme Court and the White House for the Star before moving to the Baltimore Sun, where he was the national In 1995, together with Fred Barnes and political correspondent. From 1985 to 1995, he was John Podhoretz, William Kristol founded a senior editor and White House correspondent for The new magazine of politics and culture New Republic.
    [Show full text]
  • The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009
    PHILANTHROPY / EVENT TRANSCRIPT The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009 By Irving Kristol Edited by Gertrude Himmelfarb February 2, 2011 Panel Discussion of The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays, 1942-2009 By Irving Kristol Edited by Gertrude Himmelfarb Wednesday, February 2, 2011 Table of Contents Ken Weinstein 1 Amy Kass 1 Charles Krauthammer 3 Irwin Stelzer 7 Leon Kass 11 William Kristol 15 Q&A 23 Gertrude Himmelfarb (“Bea Kristol”) 30 Speaker Biographies 31 © 2011 Hudson Institute Hudson Institute is a nonpartisan, independent policy research organization. Founded in 1961, Hudson is celebrating a half century of forging ideas that promote security, prosperity, and freedom. www.hudson.org Ken Weinstein Good afternoon. I’m Ken Weinstein, CEO of Hudson Institute. I’d like to welcome everyone to today’s Book Forum on the newly published The Neoconservative Persuasion: Selected Essays 1942- 2009, by Irving Kristol, which has been edited by the redoubtable Gertrude Himmelfarb. The book is available for sale in the back at the discounted price of $20, and I urge all of you to get one before you leave. This is a truly remarkable book, one that shows the breadth and the depth of Irving Kristol’s thought over some 67 years, which you’ll be hearing about shortly. My colleagues and I frankly feel privileged that Hudson Institute is the venue for today’s book forum, and I should thank the book’s editor, Gertrude Himmelfarb, for giving us this auspicious honor. (Applause.) We have a truly distinguished panel, who will offer their reflections shortly, but before we get underway I should note that this is Hudson Institute’s 50th anniversary year, and to mark this occasion, the Institute has begun a 50th anniversary seminar series, and today’s exceptional Book Forum is the second event in this series.
    [Show full text]
  • Conservative Movement
    Conservative Movement How did the conservative movement, routed in Barry Goldwater's catastrophic defeat to Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential campaign, return to elect its champion Ronald Reagan just 16 years later? What at first looks like the political comeback of the century becomes, on closer examination, the product of a particular political moment that united an unstable coalition. In the liberal press, conservatives are often portrayed as a monolithic Right Wing. Close up, conservatives are as varied as their counterparts on the Left. Indeed, the circumstances of the late 1980s -- the demise of the Soviet Union, Reagan's legacy, the George H. W. Bush administration -- frayed the coalition of traditional conservatives, libertarian advocates of laissez-faire economics, and Cold War anti- communists first knitted together in the 1950s by William F. Buckley Jr. and the staff of the National Review. The Reagan coalition added to the conservative mix two rather incongruous groups: the religious right, primarily provincial white Protestant fundamentalists and evangelicals from the Sunbelt (defecting from the Democrats since the George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign); and the neoconservatives, centered in New York and led predominantly by cosmopolitan, secular Jewish intellectuals. Goldwater's campaign in 1964 brought conservatives together for their first national electoral effort since Taft lost the Republican nomination to Eisenhower in 1952. Conservatives shared a distaste for Eisenhower's "modern Republicanism" that largely accepted the welfare state developed by Roosevelt's New Deal and Truman's Fair Deal. Undeterred by Goldwater's defeat, conservative activists regrouped and began developing institutions for the long haul.
    [Show full text]
  • SENATE BARRETT to Act As Speaker Pro Tempore on FIDEL CASTRO’S VISIT This Day
    E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 104 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 141 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1995 No. 166 House of Representatives The House met at 11 a.m. and was PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there called to order by the Speaker pro tem- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Will the objection to the request of the gen- pore [Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska]. tleman from Georgia? gentlewoman from Florida [Ms. ROS- There was no objection. f LEHTINEN] come forward and lead the House in the Pledge of Allegiance. f DESIGNATION OF THE SPEAKER Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN led the Pledge PRO TEMPORE ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER of Allegiance as follows: PRO TEMPORE The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Repub- The SPEAKER pro tempore. The fore the House the following commu- Chair announces that fifteen 1-minutes nication from the Speaker: lic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. will be allowed on each side this morn- WASHINGTON, DC, ing. October 25, 1995. f f I hereby designate the Honorable BILL MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE BARRETT to act as Speaker pro tempore on FIDEL CASTRO'S VISIT this day. A message from the Senate by Mr. NEWT GINGRICH, Lundregan, one of its clerks, an- (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was Speaker of the House of Representatives. nounced that the Senate had passed given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) f without amendment a bill of the House Ms.
    [Show full text]
  • William F. Buckley Jr., National Review E a Crítica Conservadora Ao Liberalismo E Os Direitos Civis Nos Eua, 1955-1968
    UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL FLUMINENSE CENTRO DE ESTUDOS GERAIS INSTITUTO DE CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS E FILOSOFIA PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM HISTÓRIA RODRIGO FARIAS DE SOUSA WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR., NATIONAL REVIEW E A CRÍTICA CONSERVADORA AO LIBERALISMO E OS DIREITOS CIVIS NOS EUA, 1955-1968. NITERÓI 2013 RODRIGO FARIAS DE SOUSA WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR., NATIONAL REVIEW E A CRÍTICA CONSERVADORA AO LIBERALISMO E OS DIREITOS CIVIS NOS EUA, 1955-1968. Tese apresentada ao curso de Pós-Graduação em História Social da Universidade Federal Fluminense, como requisito parcial para o exame de qualificação para o obtenção do Grau de Doutor. Área de concentração: Poder e Sociedade. Orientador: Prof.ª Dra. CECÍLIA AZEVEDO Niterói 2013 Ficha Catalográfica elaborada pela Biblioteca Central do Gragoatá S725 SOUSA, RODRIGO FARIAS DE. William F. Buckley Jr., National Review e a crítica conservadora ao liberalismo e os direitos civis nos EUA, 1955-1968 / Rodrigo Farias de Sousa. – 2013. 371 f. Orientador: Cecília da Silva Azevedo. Tese (Doutorado em História Social) – Universidade Federal Fluminense, Instituto de Ciências Humanas e Filosofia, Departamento de História, 2013. Bibliografia: f. 343-371. 1. Conservadorismo. 2. Estados Unidos. 3. Ideologia. 4. Direita (Ciência Política). 5. Liberalismo. 6. National Review (Periódico). 7. Guerra Fria. 8. Raça. 9. Direito Civil. I. Azevedo, Cecília da Silva. II. Universidade Federal RODRIGO FARIAS DE SOUSA WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR., NATIONAL REVIEW E A CRÍTICA CONSERVADORA AO LIBERALISMO E OS DIREITOS CIVIS NOS EUA, 1955-1968 Tese apresentada ao curso de Pós-Graduação em História da Universidade Federal Fluminense, como requisito parcial para obtenção do título de Doutor. Área de concentração: História social.
    [Show full text]
  • Ncpha's President's Address
    DECEMBER, 1995 1009 DRESSER COURT, RALEIGH, NC 27609 PHONE 919/872- 6274 NCPHA' S PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS I want to express my appreciation to all Under health care reform heart disease, Celebrate NCPHA Month during the ofyou, ourpublic health family forelecting cancer, and other chronic diseases are not month of November me as your president. I need your help going to disappear. Communicable diseases during the next year to assure that we in do not discriminate among those who are Increase the active role of the Member - public health do all that we can to advance eithercoveredby private insurance, Medicaid At -Large in NCPHA. the cause of public health for all North or are not covered at all. Major health Carolinians. As your president, I will do problems will still be here no matter what I would like to say thank you very much all I can to represent you and promote the kind of health care system we have. and remember Public Health is interest of public health in our great state. There is also no doubt that will see more everywhere, everyday, everybody. As we look at public health today, we activity in managed care programs. If we hear all kinds of predictions as to what is want to be an active player in the delivery of Your President, going to happen next. Some say that we personal health services, we will have to Dicie Alston won' t be needed or that we won' t have a participate in managed care programs. We viable role after health care reform.
    [Show full text]
  • Standing Athwart History: the Political Thought of William F. Buckley Jr
    No. 29 Standing Athwart History: The Political Thought of William F. Buckley Jr. Lee Edwards, Ph.D. Abstract: In the mid-1950s, the danger of an ever-expanding state was clear, but conservatives could not agree on an appropriate response, including whether the greater danger lay at home or abroad. The three main branches of conservatism—traditional conservatives appalled by secular mass society, libertarians repelled by the Leviathan state, and ex-Leftists alarmed by international Communism led by the Soviet Union—remained divided. Noting that “The few spasmodic victories conservatives are winning are aim- less, uncoordinated, and inconclusive…because many years have gone by since the philosophy of freedom has been expounded systematically, brilliantly, and resourcefully,” William F. Buckley Jr. resolved to change that. His vision of ordered liberty shaped and guided American conservatism from its infancy to its maturity, from a cramped suite of offices on Manhattan’s East Side to the Oval Office of the White House, from a set of “irritable mental gestures” to a political force that transformed American politics. In the summer of 1954, American conservatism Right. There were only three opinion journals of seemed to be going nowhere. import: the weekly Washington newsletter Human Politically, it was bereft of national leadership. Sen- Events; the economic monthly The Freeman; and the ator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, the valiant champion of once-influential American Mercury, now brimming the Old Right, had died of cancer the previous year. with anti-Semitic diatribes. Aside from the Chicago Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin, the zeal- Tribune and the New York Daily News, the major daily ous apostle of anti-Communism, faced censure by the newspapers leaned left.
    [Show full text]
  • The Long New Right and the World It Made Daniel Schlozman Johns
    The Long New Right and the World It Made Daniel Schlozman Johns Hopkins University [email protected] Sam Rosenfeld Colgate University [email protected] Version of January 2019. Paper prepared for the American Political Science Association meetings. Boston, Massachusetts, August 31, 2018. We thank Dimitrios Halikias, Katy Li, and Noah Nardone for research assistance. Richard Richards, chairman of the Republican National Committee, sat, alone, at a table near the podium. It was a testy breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club on May 19, 1981. Avoiding Richards were a who’s who from the independent groups of the emergent New Right: Terry Dolan of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, Paul Weyrich of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, the direct-mail impresario Richard Viguerie, Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum and STOP ERA, Reed Larson of the National Right to Work Committee, Ed McAteer of Religious Roundtable, Tom Ellis of Jesse Helms’s Congressional Club, and the billionaire oilman and John Birch Society member Bunker Hunt. Richards, a conservative but tradition-minded political operative from Utah, had complained about the independent groups making mischieF where they were not wanted and usurping the traditional roles of the political party. They were, he told the New Rightists, like “loose cannonballs on the deck of a ship.” Nonsense, responded John Lofton, editor of the Viguerie-owned Conservative Digest. If he attacked those fighting hardest for Ronald Reagan and his tax cuts, it was Richards himself who was the loose cannonball.1 The episode itself soon blew over; no formal party leader would follow in Richards’s footsteps in taking independent groups to task.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rearguard of Freedom: the John Birch Society and the Development
    The Rearguard of Freedom: The John Birch Society and the Development of Modern Conservatism in the United States, 1958-1968 by Bart Verhoeven, MA (English, American Studies), BA (English and Italian Languages) Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts July 2015 Abstract This thesis aims to investigate the role of the anti-communist John Birch Society within the greater American conservative field. More specifically, it focuses on the period from the Society's inception in 1958 to the beginning of its relative decline in significance, which can be situated after the first election of Richard M. Nixon as president in 1968. The main focus of the thesis lies on challenging more traditional classifications of the JBS as an extremist outcast divorced from the American political mainstream, and argues that through their innovative organizational methods, national presence, and capacity to link up a variety of domestic and international affairs to an overarching conspiratorial narrative, the Birchers were able to tap into a new and powerful force of largely white suburban conservatives and contribute significantly to the growth and development of the post-war New Right. For this purpose, the research interrogates the established scholarship and draws upon key primary source material, including official publications, internal communications and the private correspondence of founder and chairman Robert Welch as well as other prominent members. Acknowledgments The process of writing a PhD dissertation seems none too dissimilar from a loving marriage. It is a continuous and emotionally taxing struggle that leaves the individual's ego in constant peril, subjugates mind and soul to an incessant interplay between intense passion and grinding routine, and in most cases should not drag on for over four years.
    [Show full text]