Conservatism and the Quest for Community December 8, 2009

Host: American Enterprise Institute. As sociologist and AEI scholar Robert Nisbet argued over a half century ago in The Quest for Community, twentieth-century American liberalism elevated the centralized national state as the source of community-mindedness for Americans, at the same time undermining the roles traditionally played by family, neighborhood, voluntary association, and other traditional groups. With a new president pledging to bring us together as one great, postpartisan national community, it is clear that Nisbet’s description of liberalism is still accurate. How can conservatism respond to this challenge and begin to revitalize some of the more traditional sources of community in America? William Schambra, senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal, will deliver answers at the December Bradley Lecture at AEI.