Changes

American conservatism began to get sustained attention from academic historians after Alan Brinkley's 1994 article "the Problem of American Conservatism." Brinkley argued that since historians were generally unsympathetic to conservatism, they tended to ignore conservative movements and thinkers, characterizing conservatives as reactionaries on the wrong side of a progressive historical narrative. Brinkley's article inspired a generation of historians to take conservatism seriously.  Several examples of this work as well as Brinkley's article are included in the History of American Conservatism section below. Zelizer 2010 is a review essay of work inspired by Brikley's article. Farmer 2010 prematurely(?) sees American conservatism as in decline.