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In search of lost virtue:
American conservatives’ critique of modernity

Kostelev N.N.,

RANEPA St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, Russia, nkostelev-22@edu.ranepa.ru

ORCID: 0009-0004-3792-6795 | RESEARCHER_ID: QNZ-8871-2026

Article received: 2025.07.23 13:28. Accepted: 2025.12.04 13:29


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2026.04.13
EDN: PPDMFE

Rubric: Reflecting on matters in print

For citation:

Kostelev N.N. In search of lost virtue: American conservatives’ critique of modernity. – Polis. Political Studies. 2026. No. 4. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2026.04.13. EDN: PPDMFE (In Russ.)

Abstract

This review examines the anthology “Born of the Counterrevolution: American Conservatism” (Ed. by R.Yu. Belkovich), which constitutes the first systematic Russian-language collection of texts exploring the diversity of conservative thought in the United States. Against the backdrop of the global “right turn” observed in recent years, the reviewed volume gains particular relevance by tracing the origins and evolution of American conservatism. The anthology’s distinctive value lies in its comprehensive historical scope, spanning texts from the Founding Fathers to contemporary authors. This enables readers to track the transformation of conservative ideology in response to pivotal challenges in American history: the Civil War, Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Cold War, and contemporary culture wars. The analysis focuses on six principal conservative traditions presented in the volume: Republicanism, Southern Agrarianism, Neoconservatism, Paleoconservatism, Traditionalism, and Fusionism. The review highlights their shared “paranoid style” (in R. Hofstadter’s conceptualization) – a tendency to perceive threats ranging from John Dewey to cultural Marxism, coupled with a nostalgic opposition between an idealized past (antiquity, medieval Europe, or the pre-Civil War South) and modern liberal democracy. Special attention is given to explaining the dominance of neoconservatism in contemporary American politics and its parallels in Russia’s ideological landscape. The concluding argument emphasizes the dual nature of American political culture as a synthesis of medieval political intuitions and Enlightenment-era ideologies, accounting for its resilience amid global transformations.

Keywords

American conservatism, intellectual history, counterrevolution, traditionalism, neoconservatism, republicanism, Age of Enlightenment.

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