“Why is it more important to believe in my right to own a gun if I say it is a ‘human right’ or something like that then if I say it is a right which was given to free Englishmen in the Middle Ages and which is valued as a legacy of freedom for the last 800 years or 1,000 years and is part of our tradition of freedom?”
On July 18th, Paul Gottfried, the editor-in-chief of Chronicles and former Elizabethtown College professor, joined Merion West contributing writer Henry George for a discussion about A Paleoconservative Anthology: New Voices for an Old Tradition, a collection of works in the paleoconservative tradition compiled and edited by Dr. Gottfried that was published in February of this year. Dr. Gottfried, who has contributed a few essays to Merion West in recent months, answered Mr. George’s questions about the anthology, as well as about the history of the conservative movement (and the Old Right) more broadly. During the discussion, which was moderated by Merion West editor-in-chief emeritus Erich Prince, Dr. Gottfried also took a moment to respond to Michael Brendan Dougherty’s somewhat critical National Review review of the anthology. Highlights of the conversation include Dr. Gottfried’s recollections of his friendship with President Richard Nixon, his perspectives on historicism, the idea of the “momentum of revolution,” and how President Donald Trump’s political career differed from that of Pat Buchanan’s.
This interview appears in video form:
