The Conservative Critique of Capitalism in the 20th Century.

This paper charts the historical development of the conservative critique of capitalism in 20th century American thought. Capitalism is commonly assumed as an uncontested concept in American conservative political discourse. This paper illustrates that this commonly held assumption is false. Twentieth century American conservative thinkers have tendered a wide variety of criticisms of modern industrial and post-industrial capitalism during their lifetimes. In addition, there is evidence that the emphasis of the conservative critique of capitalism has changed over the course of the 20th century. This paper describes the shift in the critique of American capitalism by addressing key conservative thinkers from different streams of conservative thought. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]