Paul Gottfried and Paleoconservatism

Abstract

This chapter discusses the life and work of Paul Gottfried, who is known as the founder of Paleoconservatism, a reformulation of the Right that advocated aspects of the conservatism of Edmund Burke, southern agrarian writers, and the National Review as it was before neoconservatism. His criticism of neoconservatives focused on their belief in the universal imperative of categories and ideas that led them to therefore disparage any kind of historicism. Gottfried maintained both Platonic and biblical categories in his conceptions of truth, beauty, justice, and revelation. He became the foremost critic of the Republican Party and neoconservatism. From 1999 until 2005 he expanded his criticisms of political ideology in the US and Europe. Since 2008 Gottfried has adopted the label of right-wing pluralist and allows most conservative dissidents into his organization, the H. L. Mencken Club, which became associated with the Alt Right during the 2016 presidential election.