Difference between revisions of "James Burnham"
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
(Debatable as to whether or not Burnham was really a conservative; he did not seem to believe in God and supported conservative policies mostly on practical rather than moral grounds.) |
JamesWilson (talk | contribs) m (Reverted edits by PetyrB (talk) to last revision by PaulBurnett) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| − | '''James Burnham''' (1905-1987) was a leading American | + | '''James Burnham''' (1905-1987) was a leading American conservative of the 1950s, and an editor of ''[[National Review]]'' magazine. |
He is best known as a proponent of [[Rollback]] against Soviet Communism, which he promoted in the late 1940s. Opponents warned it would lead to nuclear war. It was adopted by [[Ronald Reagan]] in the 1980s, and Soviet Communism collapsed. | He is best known as a proponent of [[Rollback]] against Soviet Communism, which he promoted in the late 1940s. Opponents warned it would lead to nuclear war. It was adopted by [[Ronald Reagan]] in the 1980s, and Soviet Communism collapsed. | ||
| Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnham, James}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Burnham, James}} | ||
| + | [[Category:Conservatives]] | ||
[[Category:Cold War]] | [[Category:Cold War]] | ||
[[Category:Former Leftists]] | [[Category:Former Leftists]] | ||
Revision as of 16:35, June 24, 2014
James Burnham (1905-1987) was a leading American conservative of the 1950s, and an editor of National Review magazine.
He is best known as a proponent of Rollback against Soviet Communism, which he promoted in the late 1940s. Opponents warned it would lead to nuclear war. It was adopted by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, and Soviet Communism collapsed.
In the 1930s he was a Communist of the Trotskyite anti-Soviet variety, but was attacked by Trotsky himself and expelled by the Socialist Workers Party in 1940.
- “Modern liberalism, for most liberals, is not a consciously understood set of rational beliefs, but a bundle of unexamined prejudices and conjoined sentiments. The basic ideas and beliefs seem more satisfactory when they are not made fully explicit, when they merely lurk rather obscurely in the background, coloring the rhetoric and adding a certain emotive glow.” [1]
Further reading
- Francis, Samuel. James Burnham: Thinkers of Our Time (2nd ed. 1999) 164 pages
- previously published as Power and history: the political thought of James Burnham (1984)
- Kelly, Daniel. James Burnham and the struggle for the world: a life (2002) 443 pages; the standard scholarly biography
Primary Sources
- Burnham, James. The Managerial Revolution: Or What is Happening in the World Now (1940), highly influential study of capitalism
- Burnham, James. The Struggle for the World (1947)
- Burnham, James. The Coming Defeat of Communism (1950)
- Burnham, James. Containment or Liberation? (1952).