The Conservatives

Produced by the Blackwell Corp., Films for the Humanities (1993)

Synopsis

This program follows the rise of the Conservative movement in America from the 1940s to the height of the Reagan era.

1. What do conservatives believe?

2. What are the high points in the history of the conservative movement?

A movement of ideas (1950s)

• anticommunism crusades of the 1950s (Whittaker Chambers, Joseph McCarthy)
• organization of conservative magazines (National Review) and “think-tanks”

A political movement is born and dies (1960–1964)

• the struggle for control of the Republican Party
• conservative Republicans vs. “Eastern Establishment Republicans”
• Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign

Rescued by the Sixties (1965–1973)

• backlash against radicals of the Sixties
• rise of Ronald Reagan
• “neo-conservatism” (i.e., ‘60s radicals who turned conservative in the ‘70s)
• Nixon and Watergate
• Feminism and the fight over ERA

The New Right (1974–)

• The Supply-siders (Laffer Curve)
• The Religious Right

3. How does the story of the 1950s and 1960s as told by this film compare to liberal (Patterson) and radical (Zinn) interpretations we have seen thus far in the course?

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