Paul Gottfried
Encyclopedia
Paul Edward Gottfried is Horace Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College
in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
, and a Guggenheim recipient. He is an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute
, and Mencken Club President.
of numerous books and articles on intellectual history, paleoconservatism
, ancient historiography
, and political theory. Gottfried has also been a close friend of important political and intellectual figures: Richard Nixon
, Pat Buchanan
, John Lukacs
, Christopher Lasch
, Robert Nisbet
, Murray Rothbard
, and Joseph Sobran
. In his memoirs, he speaks of his "encounters" with these and other personalities. He is a critic of the neoconservatives within the conservative movement
and the Republican Party
. Gottfried contributes frequent articles on conservative politics and stresses the growing indistingushability from the Left of anything that passes for establishment conservatism in the late modern Western world.
, which traces the rise and expansion of the democratic
managerial state
. His third book-length attempt to define Conservatism in America addresses the rise of "value conservatism" in a highly critical fashion. In this work, he contends that traditions arise from the practices and life experiences of inter-generational communities and have nothing to do with the marketing of privileged values by talk show hosts, journalists, and professional politicians.
Gottfried has often portrayed culture and morality in contemporary Western societies as being shaped by public administration, a sympathetic cultural industry and public education. He has focused on the democratic welfare state
as a force of change given its power to recode social behavior and to restructure or subvert communities. Gottfried pays special attention to the social engineering that takes place in our society with popular consent, and with the advance of democratic pluralism
as a state ideology.
Gottfried's political columns have been generally critical of neoconservatives, whom he associates with "global democratic idolatry" and "irresponsible name-calling". He has been especially concerned about the efforts of the neoconservatives to marginalize an older Right. He has also voiced doubts about the possibility of maintaining free institutions with the weakening of the bourgeois society that created them. He makes no secret of his cultural and social pessimism, a trait that, he has observed, has become more acute the more he reflects on the course of Western societies during his lifetime.
Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown College is a small comprehensive college located in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania in Lancaster County. The school was founded in 1899 by members of the Church of the Brethren...
in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
Elizabethtown is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Harrisburg. Small factories existed at the turn of the century when the population in 1900 was 1,861. There was a slight increase in the next decade, with 1,970 people living in Elizabethtown in 1910. As of the 2000 census,...
, and a Guggenheim recipient. He is an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Its scholarship is inspired by the work of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises...
, and Mencken Club President.
Career
He is the authorAuthor
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of numerous books and articles on intellectual history, paleoconservatism
Paleoconservatism
Paleoconservatism is a term for a conservative political philosophy found primarily in the United States stressing tradition, limited government, civil society, anti-colonialism, anti-corporatism and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton...
, ancient historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
, and political theory. Gottfried has also been a close friend of important political and intellectual figures: Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought...
, John Lukacs
John Lukacs
John Adalbert Lukacs is a Hungarian-born American historian who has written more than thirty books, including Five Days in London, May 1940 and A New Republic...
, Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch was a well-known American historian, moralist, and social critic....
, Robert Nisbet
Robert Nisbet
Robert Alexander Nisbet was an American sociologist, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Vice-Chancellor at the University of California, Riverside and as the Albert Schweitzer Professor at Columbia University.-Life:Nisbet was born in Los Angeles in 1913 and raised in the small...
, Murray Rothbard
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard was an American author and economist of the Austrian School who helped define capitalist libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the...
, and Joseph Sobran
Joseph Sobran
Michael Joseph Sobran, Jr. was an American journalist and writer, formerly with National Review and a syndicated columnist, known as Joe Sobran. Pundit Pat Buchanan called Sobran "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation", although Sobran was fired from National Review by his one-time mentor...
. In his memoirs, he speaks of his "encounters" with these and other personalities. He is a critic of the neoconservatives within the conservative movement
Conservative movement
Conservative movement may refer to:*Conservatism - Political philosophy*Conservative Judaism - A Jewish denomination, unrelated to political ideology....
and the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. Gottfried contributes frequent articles on conservative politics and stresses the growing indistingushability from the Left of anything that passes for establishment conservatism in the late modern Western world.
Philosophy
Much of his historical-theoretical contributions have sought to demonstrate the obsolescence of inherited political and ideological distinctions. This theme runs through his recent trilogyTrilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
, which traces the rise and expansion of the democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
managerial state
Managerial state
Managerial state is a paleoconservative concept used in critiquing modern social democracy in Western countries. The term takes a pejorative context as a manifestation of Western decline. Theorists Samuel T. Francis and Paul Gottfried say this is an ongoing regime that remains in power,...
. His third book-length attempt to define Conservatism in America addresses the rise of "value conservatism" in a highly critical fashion. In this work, he contends that traditions arise from the practices and life experiences of inter-generational communities and have nothing to do with the marketing of privileged values by talk show hosts, journalists, and professional politicians.
Gottfried has often portrayed culture and morality in contemporary Western societies as being shaped by public administration, a sympathetic cultural industry and public education. He has focused on the democratic welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
as a force of change given its power to recode social behavior and to restructure or subvert communities. Gottfried pays special attention to the social engineering that takes place in our society with popular consent, and with the advance of democratic pluralism
Cultural pluralism
Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and their values and practices are accepted by the wider culture. Cultural pluralism is often confused with Multiculturalism...
as a state ideology.
Gottfried's political columns have been generally critical of neoconservatives, whom he associates with "global democratic idolatry" and "irresponsible name-calling". He has been especially concerned about the efforts of the neoconservatives to marginalize an older Right. He has also voiced doubts about the possibility of maintaining free institutions with the weakening of the bourgeois society that created them. He makes no secret of his cultural and social pessimism, a trait that, he has observed, has become more acute the more he reflects on the course of Western societies during his lifetime.
Books
- Conservative Millenarians: The Romantic Experience in Bavaria, Fordham University Press, 1979 ISBN 0-8232-0982-8
- The Search for Historical Meaning: Hegel and the Postwar American Right, Northern Illinois Univ Press, 1986 ISBN 0-87580-114-5
- The Conservative Movement, Twayne Pub 1988, with Thomas Fleming (second edition 1992) ISBN 0-8057-9724-6
- Carl Schmitt: Politics and Theory, Greenwood Press 1990, ISBN 0-313-27209-3
- After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State, Princeton University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-691-08982-5
- Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt: Towards a Secular Theocracy, University of Missouri Press, 2002 ISBN 0-8262-1417-7
- The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium, University of Missouri Press, 2005 ISBN 0-8262-1597-1
- Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007 ISBN 0-2306-1479-5
- Encounters: My Life with Nixon, Marcuse, and Other Friends and Teachers, ISI Books, 2009 ISBN 1-933859-99-7
- Leo Strauss and the American Conservative Movement, Cambridge University Press, 2012
Articles
- “Anti-War Anti-Americanism?”. Telos 114 (Winter 1999). New York: Telos Press.
- “The Multicultural International”. Orbis (Winter 2002)
- “The Invincible Wilsonian Matrix”. Orbis (Spring 2007)
- “The WASP Roots of Liberal Internationalism”. Historically Speaking (Fall 2010)
Selected articles
- Goldbergism: The Lowest (Terminal) Stage Of Conservatism, VDare.com, March 27, 2003.
- "How Russell Kirk (And The Right) Went Wrong", VDare.com.
- My Guy: Paul Gottfried on Patrick Buchanan, Policy Review, Summer 1995.
- "What’s In A Name? The Curious Case Of Neoconservative", VDare.com.