George Nash’s Work on History of American Conservatism Turns 50

The history of the history of postwar conservative ideas began 50 years ago, more or less. In 1976, Basic Books published The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945. But the story of this go-to title actually started several years earlier. At key steps, three interesting men — an anticommunist liberal Harvard academic who veered right as society veered left, the founding editor of this magazine, and an unconventional book editor who gave it all up to become a licensed clinical social worker — intervened in George Nash’s life to ensure that his doctoral dissertation became his magnum opus.

When Nash set out to obtain his Ph.D. at Harvard University in the late 1960s, the notion of chronicling a movement as new and unfashionable as the postwar right did not strike as the ideal means to accomplish this goal.

About the Author

Daniel J. Flynn

Daniel J. Flynn, the author of The Man Who Invented Conservatism: The Unlikely Life of Frank S. Meyer, is an American Spectator senior editor, visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and YouTuber @RightWingWilderness.

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The history of the history of postwar conservative ideas began 50 years ago, more or less. In 1976, Basic Books published The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945. But the story of this go-to title actually started several years earlier. At key steps, three interesting men — an anticommunist liberal Harvard academic who veered right as society veered left, the founding editor of this magazine, and an unconventional book editor who gave it all up to become a licensed clinical social worker — intervened in George Nash’s life to ensure that his doctoral dissertation became his magnum opus.

When Nash set out to obtain his Ph.D. at Harvard University in the late 1960s, the notion of chronicling a movement as new and unfashionable as the postwar right did not strike as the ideal means to accomplish this goal.