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ETD Abstract Container

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The Conscience of a Movement: American Conservatism, the Vietnam War, and the Politics of Natural Law

Yates, Matthew Kyle
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1313108426

Abstract Details

2011, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
The rise of a conservative ideology within a broader New Right Movement in the United States is well documented among scholars of domestic U.S. history. That said, historians so far largely have ignored how foreign policy in general—and the Vietnam War in particular—both elevated and shaped conservatism as a leading political tradition. Debates over foreign aid, war strategy and tactics, the draft and Antiwar Movement, and Vietnamization shattered the New Right into warring camps, even as these issues drew the attention of the American electorate to the New Right as a whole. By the mid-1960s, conservatives ranging from intellectuals to media figures won preeminence within the broader New Right, not simply because of their views on domestic policy, but also as a result of their persuasive articulation of an evolving ideological position on these foreign policy issues. This dissertation will present an intellectual history of conservatism to argue that domestic debates about the Vietnam War gradually redefined the emergent philosophy as a politics of natural law theory, one well situated within the broader context of American and Western political philosophy.
Peter Hahn, PhD (Committee Chair)
Robert McMahon, PhD (Committee Member)
Kevin Boyle, PhD (Committee Member)
262 p.
History
Conservatism; New Right; Vietnam War; natural law; ideology; politics; United States

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Yates, M. K. (2011). The Conscience of a Movement: American Conservatism, the Vietnam War, and the Politics of Natural Law [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1313108426

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Yates, Matthew. The Conscience of a Movement: American Conservatism, the Vietnam War, and the Politics of Natural Law. 2011. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1313108426.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Yates, Matthew. "The Conscience of a Movement: American Conservatism, the Vietnam War, and the Politics of Natural Law." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1313108426

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.