THE FUTLLITARIAN SOCIETY

This is a lengthy study of conservative thought in America today. The author's basic thesis is that American conservatism in its attempt to find the principles of a fixed society is incapable of development and that it is ultimately ""a refusal of freedom"". He deals at first with the theoreticians -- W.H. Chamberlain, Felix Morley and James Burnham -of what he calls which is actually political and economic 19th century liberalism. He then discusses Peter Vierick and the most important figure in American conservative thought. Russell Kirk and the basis of New Conservatism. As he moves further away from the rigid Right, to Clinton Rossiter, Walter Lippmann, Louis Hartz, Daniel Boorstin, Daniel Bell, his sympathies deepen -- for the problems which confront them and for their attitudes. Perhaps as a consequence Newman's own prose style markedly improves and becomes far more lively (especially in sections on the suburbs and Time Life's institution- of the National Purpose series) than the depressingly dull academese which characterizes the opening chapters of his book. It might be felt that The Futilitarian Society covers too much material within a single thesis but it will be of interest to students of political polarity.