| This dissertation examines the rise of post-World War II American conservatism during the period of approximately 1945 to 1985. Employing the methodology of intellectual/cultural history, it attempts to distinguish between the conservative ideas that made their way to political power with the Reagan ascendancy and those that fell by the wayside. The former are broadly termed "Chicago conservatism," the appellation derived from several key thinkers in residence in Chicago in 1950, and from several others whose thought seemed to be shaped by encounters with the city at one time or another.;Chicago conservatism is characterized as consisting of grand, over-arching, all-explanatory theories, which dispense with the need for the nuanced decision-making and distinction-making customarily entailed in democratic self-government. It is distinguished from a less successful "trans-Atlantic conservatism," which is typically rooted in tradition, history-minded, culture-specific and non-ideological. The ideas of Chicago conservatism are wrapped up into four broad categories of belief clusters: economic neo-liberalism, conservative populism, constitutional originalism and moral clarity.;This study examines the relevant ideas as they made their way through the media of mass communication, an environment that changed significantly during the period in question. The media are assumed to be the point at which intellectual and cultural history intersect and the ideas of academic theorists make their way into the popular culture. |
