The Right

The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism

By: Matthew Continetti

Narrated by: Carl Sayles

A magisterial intellectual history of the last century of American conservatism

When most people think of the history of modern conservatism, they think of Ronald Reagan. Yet this narrow view leaves many to question: How did Donald Trump win the presidency? And what is the future of the Republican Party?

In The Right, Matthew Continetti gives a sweeping account of movement conservatism’s evolution, from the Progressive Era through the present. He tells the story of how conservatism began as networks of intellectuals, developing and institutionalizing a vision that grew over time, until they began to buckle under new pressures, resembling national populist movements. Drawing out the tensions between the desire for mainstream acceptance and the pull of extremism, Continetti argues that the more one studies conservatism’s past, the more one becomes convinced of its future.

Deeply researched and brilliantly told, The Right is essential reading for anyone looking to understand American conservatism.

Critic reviews

“Matthew Continetti applies what scholars of all persuasions should do with American conservatism, treating it as a complex, contradictory movement, often at war between its populists and its intellectual elite wings… Continetti is skilled in going places and making conclusions other rightists don’t.”
—The Federalist

“[A] sturdy account of the many divisions within modern conservatism… Rational, well thought out, and impeccably argued—of interest to all students of politics.”—Kirkus

"A worthy analysis.”—Publishers Weekly

“Matthew Continetti has earned his luminous reputation as the foremost contemporary chronicler of American conservatism’s path to today’s problematic condition. He traces conservatism’s rich intellectual pedigree, from the founders’ classical liberalism through twentieth-century conservatives’ responses to the challenges of progressivism. The result is a thinking person’s map for the road ahead.”—George F. Will, author of The Conservative Sensibility

“Matthew Continetti has written an instant classic, sure to become the essential one-volume history of modern American conservatism. Balanced and subtle, it offers an engaging combination of intellectual and political history that makes sense of the immensely complicated story of the Right.”—Yuval Levin, author of A Time to Build

“Deft and authoritative, Matthew Continetti illuminates conservatism’s present through its long and often tumultuous past. The Right isn’t just an engaging history and incisive analysis of the intra-conservative debate, but an essential contribution to it.”—Rich Lowry, editor in chief of National Review

A Comprehensive History of the Conservative Movement

Continetti hits all of the highs and lows of the conservative movement and its undercurrent of populism. He explores in detail every thread and strain of the right, from its anti communist roots to the ascent of the alt right. His epic project carefully articulates the competing agendas within the Republican Party, while effectively making a case for the soul of a true American conservatism.

A Lefty Reads The Right

It served its purpose, to inform, and it did. My view is that our American history is too young and too fluid to sustain the hard label of "conservatism and
the right" that the writer attempts to define. Better us all to do away with these labels and focus more on the legitimacy of the words of our Founding Fathers and our Constitution and pledge our allegiance to the same. Its easy to get confused when folk start promoting their own morphological interpretations of labels such as these.

Stunning Analysis placing the development of America's Right in historical context

Stunning analysis of an incredibly complex political movement. Continetti handles each topic with incisive analysis that cuts through political dissension, and gets to the heart of the matter, while informing and contextualizing brilliantly. No one can claim to understand the Right without having read this book.

Very informative

I really enjoyed the book. And I’m not cruel enough to give 4 stars for the speaker,

But the way he seemed to pronounce names like a computer was grating sometimes adding extra syllables. It was like there was no regard for how the person actually says their name

Author is Bill Kristol’s Son in Law

I like Matt and follow his work though I was not aware of his familial connection to Bill Kristol. Frankly, that explains a lot about how Matt relates to some of the impossibly broad subject matter of this book.