Author: Emily Hull

Emily Hull is a PhD candidate at UCL, Institute of the Americas funded by a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities. Her research fuses intellectual history and biography to study the political thought of the ex-Trotskyist turned neoconservative journalist Irving Kristol.
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Book Review: A Conspiratorial Life: Robert Welch, the John Birch Society, and the Revolution of American Conservatism.

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Miller makes two vital contributions to the field of post-war American conservatism. He demonstrates the merit of using biography to explore the origins and circulation of ideas and shows the need to take fringe elements of the right more seriously. Consequently, A Conspiratorial Life is essential reading for those seeking to enrich their knowledge of the traction of conspiracy theories contemporary political life in the United States and beyond. Continue reading

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Book Review: The Rise of Common-Sense Conservatism: The American Right and the Reinvention of the Scottish Enlightenment by Antti Lepisto

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Why were historians of conservatism shocked by Donald Trump’s rise? Antti Lepistö, an intellectual historian at the University of Oulu, Finland, seeks to answer this question in his first monograph, The Rise of Common-Sense Conservatism: The American Right and the Reinvention of the Scottish Enlightenment. The work is split into six chapters each focusing on a different element of neoconservative thought. The first- and second-chapters study journalist Irving Kristol’s use of ‘common man’ rhetoric in the late-1970s and early-1980s, and how social scientist James Q. Wilson built upon this. Continue reading

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“I’d Rather Vote for a Tuna Fish Sandwich”: Never Trumpers and the 2020 Presidential Election

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“The man is categorically unfit to be president,” declares Bardon from Kentucky. Todd from Oregon agrees, arguing that “Trump’s daily tweet storms and fragile ego show he is dangerously incompetent.” Meanwhile, Dianne in Utah is concerned that “Trump cares about his image more than he cares about saving lives.” You… Continue reading