Edmund Fawcett’s new book, Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition, is a history of the conservative approach to politics in America, England, France, and Germany from the eighteenth century to the present. It is divided into six parts. The first two are general accounts of conservatism, while the remaining four cover the periods between 1830–80, 1880–1945, 1945–80, and 1980 to the present. The book discusses many conservatives in each of the countries, in each period, and gives an account of the role they played in the political condition of their countries.

Fawcett’s references to others’ accounts of conservatism are extensive and exceptionally helpful for both scholars and general readers. Reading the book makes obvious that the author has consulted a wide range of books, views, and articles in the relevant languages. The accounts themselves, however, are seriously flawed journalistic sketches of particular conservative viewpoints.

One problem is Fawcett’s approach to the subject. He forthrightly acknowledges that he is “a left-wing liberal” and that, although he does “not claim that this history is neutral,” he “trust[s] it is objective.” As to its objectivity, Fawcett begins in the preface by assuming that “conservatism began life as an enemy of liberalism” and that it “endured in modern politics by cooperating with liberalism.” The assumption is that liberalism was in place, and then along came conservatism as a reaction to it. This is nonsense, ignoring that the historical roots of the conservative tradition go back to antiquity, far before