invisible hands the businessmen podcasts

The History of the History of the Right (w/ Kim Phillips-Fein)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2024 66:54

When did the American conservative movement begin? Who were its chief protagonists? What were their main motivations? Is the conservative movement a social movement, like any other, or is it something different? Should scholars have "sympathy" for their conservative subjects in order to study them? And are there important distinctions to be drawn between "conservative," "the right," and "the far right?" These are the sorts of questions historians ask each other and themselves. The changing ways they answer them — and the reasons their answers change — is the subject of today's episode. In other words: we're discussing the historiography of the American right. (Fun!)In a highly influential 1994 essay, historian Alan Brinkley referred to conservatism as "something of an orphan in historical scholarship." By 2011, when our brilliant guest, Kim Phillips-Fein, surveyed the historical literature on conservatism, she found a dynamic, prolific, even "trendy" field, but one with many unsettled methodological debates. In 2017, friend of the pod Rick Perlstein wrote that historians, himself included, had made a mistake, privileging the more respectable and intellectual dimensions of conservatism over the more irrational, rank, and racist. "If Donald Trump is the latest chapter of conservatism's story," Perlstein mused, "might historians have been telling that story wrong?" Since then, several studies and popular books have emerged which correct the record, and take up Perlstein's call to study "conservative history's political surrealists and intellectual embarrassments, its con artists and tribunes of white rage." To start off the year — an election year, no less — we're taking up these questions again. What is the state of the field of conservative studies now? Have historians, popular writers, and/or podcasters over-corrected, in the Trump era, for the mistakes Perlstein cites? What might we be missing this time? We're so very lucky to have long-time friend of the show Kim Phillips-Fein, the Robert Gardiner-Kenneth T. Jackson Professor of History at Columbia University, as our guide. Let's get big picture and take stock. 2024, here we go. Further Reading:Alan Brinkley, "The Problem of American Conservatism," The American Historical Review, Apr 1994. Kim Phillips Fein, "Conservatism: A State of the Field," The Journal of American History, Dec 2011. — Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (2010)— Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics (2017)Rick Perlstein, "I Thought I Understood the American Right. Trump Proved Me Wrong." New York Times, Apr 11, 2017. Richard Hofstadter, "The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt," The American Scholar, Winter, 1954. Willmoore Kendall, The Conservative Affirmation (Regnery Publishing, 1963)John Huntington, Far-Right Vanguard: The Radical Roots of Modern Conservatism (2021)...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon for access to all of our bonus episodes!

american history donald trump new york times fun field journal columbia university american history new deal conservatism know your enemy american right american conservatism rick perlstein american scholar perlstein american historical review fiscal crisis fear city new york modern conservatism john huntington kim phillips fein crusade against alan brinkley invisible hands the businessmen

"Work Better, Live Better: Motivation, Labor, and Management Ideology"

StudioTulsa

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2021 28:59

Here in the good ol' USA, a strong work ethic -- a drive to succeed through hard work -- is seen as a leading virtue, and indeed, as a necessity. We Americans have long been told that financial success and personal well-being will undoubtedly follow if we adopt a highly motivated mindset toward our job. On today's edition of ST, we look at the origins of that "highly motivated" outlook. Our guest is David Gray, a teaching professor of American studies and history at Oklahoma State University. His new book is "Work Better, Live Better." As was noted of this work by Kim Phillips-Fein, author of "Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade against the New Deal": "By focusing on the idea of 'motivation' and the level of effort, energy, and engagement that managers have historically put into attempting to shape the inner psychic lives and experiences of workers, Gray renders strange and unusual some of the most familiar tropes of economic culture."

united states american motivation management labor ideology crusade oklahoma state university live better work better david gray we americans kim phillips fein invisible hands the businessmen

Kimberly Phillips-Fein, “Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal” (W. W. Norton, 2010)

New Books in Public Policy

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2015 34:50

Today we’ll focus on the history of resistance to the New Deal. In her book Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal (W. W. Norton,2010), Kimberly Phillips-Fein details how many of the most prominent elites had their ideas and practices shaped by groups that were part of organized resistance to the New Deal. She argues that this history helps revise common understandings of the rise of conservatism in the 1970s and after. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices