Radical Conservatism

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Radical Conservatism explores an array of ideas which, on their face, seem conservative (family, tradition, history, the land, autonomy, and private property) but which can instead be deployed to achieve radical ends (antiracism, anticapitalism, inclusion, solidarity, diversity, and climate repair). Contemporary political discourse, reduced to a mutually exclusive logic that demands team loyalty and roils at the whiff of complicity, has abandoned these generative ideas. But Radical Conservatism reintroduces these mutually inclusive ideas and thinks beyond the rigid polarities that define political thought today. The literature explored here is generally hostile to the status quo liberalisms that have shaped normative U.S. political thought for centuries. From Sherwood Anderson to Ernest Gaines, and from bell hooks to Marilynne Robinson, the texts studied in Radical Conservatism pursue a humble, compassionate, non-judgmental, and generous engagement with the whole world.</jats:p>