Hi all,
Here are my general research ideas. U.S. History is my concentration, and-- surprise!-- I plan to write my thesis on a topic in U.S. History. I have not narrowed down what I am interested in writing a thesis on, but I'm hoping after the writing of a 25-page paper on a topic in US History, I will be able to start the harrowing narrowing.
I am interested in the development of the modern conservative movement in the United States, godfathered by the recently deceased William F. Buckley, Jr. (or "Pup" as he was called by his son Christopher, whom maybe some of you may know from his writing on Tina Brown's "The Daily Beast". Christopher Buckley, who wrote "Thank You for Smoking," among other political satires, has been in the news most recently for the small uproar he caused after endorsing Obama and subsequently being fired by The National Review, the conservative magazine his father founded).
Besides Buckley, I am also very interested in writing and reading about religion in America. I took a great class on Religion in America last year from Jonathan Herzog, and I think that writing about conservatism and religion in a more general sense (with or without Buckley) might be good too.
My ideas for paper topics so far are:
1. How Buckley's ideas and political philosophy has shaped California's politics; or: His rearing of Reagan
2. The conservative movement and changes in the (idea of the) American family in the 20th and 21st centuries. Another direction this could go would be something about the RNC & Michael Steele + race in general in the conservative movement. This could also turn into something about religion/race if I were to write about Yes on Prop 8 movements led by churches in California, broken down by both denomination and race make-up.
3. Buckley, the Catholic. -- how Buckley's Catholicism meshed (or didn't) with the Protestant conservative base (and the Evangelical base). How are the National Review crowd and Fundamentalist Christians reconciled or connected? Are they mutually exclusive, or all part of the same movement?
Thanks for your input!
Sylvie
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Hey Sylvie,
ReplyDeleteI think the conservative movement is a really interesting topic that I, at least, don't know much about. You've identified some avenues for your research to take where you have a LOT of sources, and I feel like there are a lot of underlying assumptions about conservative thought about race, class, gender, and religion that might be really interesting to look at. Personally I think your second topic would be the most exciting, because would address current and historical sources. I don't know much about conservative history but I think Buckley would be a great place to start, and connecting him to a larger movement would make for a really new and different essay.
Hey Sylvie,
ReplyDeleteI also think that looking at the cross-section of American conservatisms would be really interesting—I like what you've brought up regarding the differences between the conservative Catholic and conservative Protestant groups regarding both media and politics with your third question. That said, I also agree with Jenni that your second topic is a great way to bring in very immediate political situations, and it look like you've already pinpointed some very specific sources and examples for your second topic. Look forward to seeing how your topic progresses.
Hi, Sylvie,
ReplyDeleteI'm with both of the two above in that I think that conservatism and its different iterations would be really interesting--the media and different conservative groups' attitude toward supposed "conservative" media would be a really fruitful way of looking at things. What ways of framing issues will put off certain conservatives but draw others, etc?
Sylvie -
ReplyDeleteI really like what you've come up with so far - it seems like within the American conservatism movement there is lots of tension, peppered with contradictions that make us question it's future and how it has been so cohesive in the past. I especially like how the third option has a lot of inherent argument built into it!
Sylvie--
ReplyDeleteAll of those ideas are very cool. It seems like when you are talking conservative movement you're really talking the conservative movement in California, no? Not to say that's a bad thing and if nothing else is a huge step in getting something manageable. From there I think, to me the most compelling idea is perhaps the role that the media and Buckley in particular had upon California conservative movement in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. There is a book called "Suburban Warriors" by Lisa McGirr that directly addresses the California conservative movement and would probably be really helpful for any of these topics.