A leading political writer looks at the ability of conservatism to reinvent itself and whether it can continue to do this.

For 200 years, conservatism has defied its reputation as a backward-looking creed by confronting and adapting to liberal modernity. By doing so, the Right has won long periods of power and effectively become the dominant tradition in politics. Yet, despite their success, conservatives have continued to fight with each other about how far to compromise with liberalism and democracy – or which values to defend and how.

Edmund Fawcett (author of Liberalism: The Life of an Idea and Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition) looks at this conflicted history, clarifies key ideas, and illuminates quarrels within the Right today.

Focusing on the United States, Britain, France, and Germany, Fawcett covers thinkers and politicians from the forerunners to the conservatives today, with Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and their European counterparts pushing conservatism toward a nation-first, hard Right.

Fawcett is in discussion with Nick Pearce, Director of the Institute of Policy Research, University of Bath.

Edmund Fawcett’s Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition is published by Princeton University Press. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.

This event is in association with the Institute for Policy Research.

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Festival of Ideas: Edmund Fawcett and Nick Pearce, Does Conservatism Have a Future?