A new conservative theory in Britain and America has altered the terms of political debate, not only among conservatives, but also among liberals, social democrats, and socialists. In this book, Robert Devigne explores how this conservative thought--in particular the work of the British political philosopher Michael Oakeshott, the American Leo Strauss, and their followers--is responding to the challenge of postmodernism, to the pervasive loss of civil traditions, morality, and authority in contemporary societies.

Devigne argues persuasively that new British and American conservative...