
America Last
The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators
Jacob Heilbrunn(Author)
WW Norton & Co (Publisher)
Published on 22. November 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-324-09567-5 (ISBN)
Description
Why do Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and much of the far Right so explicitly admire the murderous and incompetent Russian dictator Vladimir Putin? Why is Ron DeSantis drawing from Victor Orban's illiberal politics for his own policies as governor of Florida-a single American state that has more than twice the population of Orban's entire nation, Hungary?
In America Last, Jacob Heilbrunn, a highly respected observer of the American Right, demonstrates that the infatuation of American conservatives with foreign dictators-though a striking and seemingly inexplicable fact of our current moment-is not a new phenomenon. It dates to the First World War, when some conservatives, enthralled with Kaiser Wilhelm II, openly rooted for him to defeat the forces of democracy. In the 1920s and 1930s, this affinity became even more pronounced as Hitler and Mussolini attracted a variety of American admirers. Throughout the Cold War, the Right evinced a fondness for autocrats such as Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet, while some conservatives wrote apologias for the Third Reich and for apartheid South Africa. The habit of mind is not really about foreign policy, however. As Heilbrunn argues, the Right is drawn to what it perceives as the impressive strength of foreign dictators, precisely because it sees them as models of how to fight against liberalism and progressivism domestically.
America Last is a guide for the perplexed, identifying and tracing a persuasion-or what one might call the "illiberal imagination"-that has animated conservative politics for a century now. Since the 1940s, the Right has railed against communist fellow travellers in America. Heilbrunn finally corrects the record, showing that dictator worship is an unignorable tradition within modern American conservatism-and what it means for us today.
In America Last, Jacob Heilbrunn, a highly respected observer of the American Right, demonstrates that the infatuation of American conservatives with foreign dictators-though a striking and seemingly inexplicable fact of our current moment-is not a new phenomenon. It dates to the First World War, when some conservatives, enthralled with Kaiser Wilhelm II, openly rooted for him to defeat the forces of democracy. In the 1920s and 1930s, this affinity became even more pronounced as Hitler and Mussolini attracted a variety of American admirers. Throughout the Cold War, the Right evinced a fondness for autocrats such as Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet, while some conservatives wrote apologias for the Third Reich and for apartheid South Africa. The habit of mind is not really about foreign policy, however. As Heilbrunn argues, the Right is drawn to what it perceives as the impressive strength of foreign dictators, precisely because it sees them as models of how to fight against liberalism and progressivism domestically.
America Last is a guide for the perplexed, identifying and tracing a persuasion-or what one might call the "illiberal imagination"-that has animated conservative politics for a century now. Since the 1940s, the Right has railed against communist fellow travellers in America. Heilbrunn finally corrects the record, showing that dictator worship is an unignorable tradition within modern American conservatism-and what it means for us today.
Reviews / Votes
"America Last is an admirable piece of work." -- Alan Ryan - Literary Review "American Last provides an alarming list of characters whose enchantment with foreign dictators through the decades exerted real influence on American intellectual life... An impressive and engaging catalog of the right's long-held fascination with autocracy." -- Parker HenryMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
9 black-and-white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 207 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
222 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-09567-5 (9781324095675)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2024
Liveright
€17.49
Available for download
Person
Jacob Heilbrunn is the editor of the National Interest and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He is the author of They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons and lives in Washington, DC.