This book is a historical-critical study of American conservatism as a post-war social phenomenon. Its thesis is that conservatism failed to have a lasting impact on American culture beyond the increased acceptance of the conservative label itself: "the most enduring accomplishment of the post-war conservative movement" is the fact that "by the 1980s a great many Americans were willing to identify themselves as 'conservative'". The authors show that American conservatives generally treated conservative theoretical assumptions as politically irrelevant. Like their liberal (...) opponents, conservatives acted as if theory were subordinate to practice. The hollowness of their political success suggests that ideas do indeed have consequences. (shrink)

This book is a reprint of the English translation of the author's La grande crise de la république française. It was written in 1941 as a contribution to the Allied war effort. Simon's aim is to unmask the Vichy regime. "The government of Marshall Pétain," he writes, "is a political form of transition, destined to make possible the complete control of the international Nazis over the French people". National liberation, Simon predicts, will sweep away Vichy and institute the Fourth French (...) Republic. (shrink)