"Slade has given us an excellent account of a once influential political outlook that deserves renewed attention. . . . What’s needed is a balance between rival values and principles that is flexible, moderate and resistant to doctrinal purity. Slade’s history of fusionism might help conservatives practice this art of balance in dark times." —Wall Street Journal

"In her glorious new book, Reason magazine’s Stephanie Slade details the history and the ideas of this movement. Called Fusionism, Slade offers nothing but excellence in terms of thought, research, and analysis. Indeed, Fusionism is one of the most important books not only of 2026, but of the first third of the twenty-first century. It is an able retelling of the past, but also a guide to the future." —Bradley J. Birzer, Law & Liberty

"Fusionism is a well-oiled machine of a book. . . . Those concerned about the health of the American political right will find plenty to ponder." —Christianity Today

"Although Slade proposes a renewal of fusionism as a remedy to conservatism’s drift and the challenges facing a divided Republic, the book’s greatest strength lies in its analysis of the trends to date. . . . Slade’s personal history of the movement is a rich and readable complement to some of the deeper treatments of the ideas. . . . Slade’s arguments are clean and incisive, and the prose is a pleasure to read." —The Daily Economy

"Stephanie Slade’s new book . . . is simply perfect in presenting what one needs to know about the political philosophy that produced post-World War II American conservatism, and what is required to revive it today. . . . I must close by urging all to read Slade’s wonderful book to develop a proper understanding of fusionist philosophy and why it can allow us to meet the challenge of the times." —The American Spectator

"Stephanie Slade’s book is a wonderful example for the rest of us to follow. . . . [R]eaders will benefit from her clear, direct prose and from her succinct retelling of modern American conservatism’s history." —Elizabeth Corey, Civitas Outlook

"Stephanie Slade’s Fusionism is the history we need to conduct contemporary debates on the American right. . . . Slade’s book is an excellent retelling of a history that young conservatives have forgotten." —Religion & Liberty

"Slade is not naïve to the fact that we fusionists have an uphill battle. . . . We must build. We must persuade. . . . If it took the fusionists twenty years to build it, and the populists twenty years to destroy it, it should be possible to gain it back given sufficient time and effort. And when we do, Stephanie Slade’s fantastic new book will be an important contribution to that revival." —Thomas D. Howes, Law & Liberty

"With a judiciousness all-the-more admirable for its unfashionableness, Stephanie Slade examines in her recent book, Fusionism, the American experiment’s permanent reliance on liberty and virtue. . . . Slade restates in light of contemporary controversies the enduring truth that the well-being of rights-protecting democracy in America depends on the nation’s ability to blend liberty and virtue." —RealClearPolitics

"For Slade and many of her fellow critics, this is a time for choosing sides as serious as any in modern history – action must be taken to defend the governmental restraint and commitment to due process that were once the hallmarks of principled conservatism in the American political system." —Richard Morrison, Civitas Outlook

"Slade’s magisterial work describes the creation of modern American conservatism during the 20th century and the philosophical insight at its core—that our republic cannot survive without a strong commitment to both liberty and virtue." —The Carolina Journal

"Slade has described the central dispute on the American right more clearly than anyone else has. Slade’s Fusionism should remind all of us that an economic argument is not complete until it explains what economic freedom allows human beings to build." —National Review

"Fusionism has something to offer for all parts of the American Right. For the young conservative, the book is an important history lesson about the way things once were and a guide to how to move society forward towards a more life-affirming, spiritually nourishing philosophy. For those who lived through the Reagan era, Fusionism should serve as a stark wake-up call about the status quo of the American Right." —The Catholic Herald

"As formal, ideological fusionism of the Meyer-ite sort recedes in American electoral politics, Reason Magazine senior editor Stephanie Slade has written Fusionism, a book detailing the ideology’s postwar intellectual history and setting it up as superior to alternative forms of right-wing ideology found in American Compass-style nominally socially conservative progressivism and the identitarian fanaticism of the 'dissident right.'" —Capital Research Center

"Stephanie Slade is hoping to make conservatives decent again, and we should all wish her the greatest success in her endeavors, for it's no platitude to observe that if people would behave decently, the world would be decent." —Arkansas Democrat Gazette

"Stephanie Slade . . . has written a timely book about an old idea that grapples with even older debates regarding human flourishing and justice. . . . Slade’s real question is not whether Fusionism’s synthesis of liberty and virtue was ever correct, but whether it was ever truly attempted—or whether, like so many demanding ideals, it was abandoned before it had the chance to fail." —Paul Mueller, Civitas Outlook

"History will tell if Slade's revival of the fusionist conservative ethos coincided with its death or its revival. But perhaps the greatest irony is that while the New Right might eventually prevail over the old conservative consensus, it will face the same impossible dilemma: How can a free and virtuous society flourish? They would be smart to ask the fusionists." —Conservative Review

"The object of Slade’s nostalgia is the good old days when conservatism stood for Reaganite pieties and the fusionist philosophy of Hayek, Buckley, Frank Meyer and the classic National Review canon. Slade is well placed to make such an argument. A senior editor at the libertarian flagship Reason magazine and a devout Catholic, Slade has written a crisp and valuable history of fusionism that will be of great value to scholars of the political right." —Illiberalism

"You will not find a better explainer of—or advocate for—fusionism than Stephanie Slade. Fusionism is a splendid read. Slade shows us what American conservatism sometimes was, and might again be." —Laura K. Field, author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right

"Stephanie Slade brilliantly illuminates the truth that the free society is made possible by the creative tension between liberty and virtue. With clarity and insight, she shows that if we come to imagine that politics exists to eradicate that tension rather than navigate it, then we will fail to conserve our society. This book is essential reading for conservatives of all parties." —Yuval Levin, author of American Covenant

"Political movements need vigorous argument, but the rush toward the new often makes us forget that previous generations wrestled with similar dilemmas—and left behind compelling solutions. By recovering the fusionist tradition of figures like Frank Meyer, this book shows why that philosophy may still be the clearest path out of our present impasse." —George Hawley, author of Conservatism in a Divided America

"In a season of growing rancor and confusion in our nation's politics, Stephanie Slade has produced a perceptive study of modern American conservatism's intellectual roots in its simultaneous commitment to the defense of freedom and the pursuit of virtue. Her book is a welcome reappraisal of conservative intellectual history and an incisive exploration of the ideological fault lines now dividing the American right." —George H. Nash, author of The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945

"The idea that a free society depends on its citizens’ character, not just the design of its government, runs through Stephanie Slade’s excellent new book, Fusionism." —Veronique de Rugy, Civitas Outlook

"Though much has been written on the tension of conservatism and classical liberalism in the 1950s and 1960s, a sort of fusion became the default for almost all persons who were not already left or ideologically oriented and committed. Here, Slade brilliantly and artfully tells the story and offers brand new insights into the twentieth century." —Bradley J. Birzer, author of Russell Kirk: American Conservative

"Woven into Slade’s prose are fleeting references to Adam Smith and the now nearly clichéd “invisible hand,” coinciding with Hayek’s notion of “spontaneous order,” both of which augur for free markets and cultural norms over collectivist approaches such as socialism, the latter necessarily requiring a larger role for government. It is here that Slade praises market competition as a superior alternative to central planning, presumably part and parcel of socialist theory, which represents a false choice." —Irish Film Critic

Stephanie Slade is a senior editor at Reason magazine, where she covers the ins and outs of the American conservative movement. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, America, U.S. News and World Report, and elsewhere.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: What the Heck Is Happening on the Right

1. A Debate over Definitions

2. Truth Withers When Freedom Dies

3. Anti-Liberalism Strikes Back

4. The Struggle Availeth

5. Pitchfork Populism, Then and Now

6. Rise of the Right-Wing Progressives

7. Red-Pilling the American Right

8. New Words for Ancient Truths

Notes

Bibliography

Index