Patrick Allitt
On his book The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History
Cover Interview of February 26, 2010
america /
presidency /
obama barack /
neoliberalism /
civil war /
republican party /
reagan ronald /
conservatism /
roosevelt franklin d /
buckley william /
Editor’s note
Originally, this interview ran on the Rorotoko cover page under the headline
“Conservatives believe that civilization is complex, precious, delicate, vulnerable.”
We highlighted two quotes.
On the first page:
“The American Civil War was a conflict between two types of conservatism: that of the slave South that wanted to preserve its threatened labor system, and that of the Republican North that wanted to preserve the Union.”
On the second:
“Reviewers and interviewers have all asked me what I make of the current situation, whether Sarah Palin is the future of the GOP, and what will happen next. My answer is: the more you study history, the more you realize how hopeless it is to try to predict the future.”