Conservatism, Marxism, and Sociology: Ideas Have Consequences

Upon retiring and cleaning out my high school classroom and the stuff I had accumulated over 27 years, I came across a long lost volume that I thought had disappeared, The Political Context of Sociology, by Leon Bramson. It was published in 1961 by Princeton University Press, 164 pages with index. Murray Rothbard loved this thin little volume, and so do I.

I felt like the Good Shepard finding the lost sheep.

If you ever have a chance to obtain a copy and read it you will see what I mean. The main thrust of the book is how modern sociology is basically formulated on the theoretical basis of early 19th century European conservatism, from reactionaries such as Comte, Hegel, Bonald, and de Maistre. Their theories of mass society and order were counter to and opposed the ideas of classical liberalism, individualism, laissez faire capitalism, constitutional republicanism and the Enlightenment. This goes along with similar studies I have read, in particular The Lost Literature of Socialism, by George Watson, another thin but essential volume of 112 pages, that observes how European literary conservatives in England were also some of the earliest harsh opponents of capitalism and the free society, and played a major role in influencing Marx and other collectivists in their ideological world view.

I have discussed all this further at LRC in the past.

Present day conservatives, particularly neoconservatives, have a strange and obscure ideological patrimony of which most are totally clueless and unaware. It sometimes makes their critique of cultural Marxism sound extremely hollow, ignoring their antecedents and forefathers.

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