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U.S. President Richard Milhous Nixon (Photo聽via the National Archives and Records Administration)

September 19, 2017 鈥� History professor is the co-editor of a new compilation of research on postwar conservative movements in the United States and Western Europe.

features expert articles on a range of topics dealing with conservative political movements.

Von der Goltz, an associate professor in the and the , became interested in right-wing political movements during her time studying political movements in modern German history.

鈥�1968 was a powerful moment in postwar Germany history. It was a moment when young people stood up and pointed out all the ways in which the country hadn鈥檛 really overcome its past,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was writing a monograph on the reaction to this among conservative students and started thinking 鈥斅爓hat did 鈥�68 look like from the perspective of a young conservative? So I started delving into that question.鈥�

Quickly realizing that there was a dearth of scholarship on conservative movements in Western Europe 鈥斅爀specially compared to the seemingly endless libraries on conservatism in the United States and on global liberal movements 鈥斅爒on der Goltz saw an opportunity. In 2013, she organized a conference that took a comparative and transnational approach to the study of conservative movements.

鈥淲hen we think of the global 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s, we鈥檝e really ignored people on the other side of the political spectrum,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his idea of the silent majority appealed to both Western European and American groups, so we tried to trace when the idea emerged, how it was defined, and why it was so appealing.鈥�

The conference was a resounding success, leading von der Goltz to solicit contributions from attendees for a comprehensive book on the era鈥檚 conservative movements on both sides of the Atlantic. She and co-editor Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson of the carefully selected pieces from a broad range of authors in both subject matter and academic experience.

鈥淭here are some very established scholars 鈥斅� from Princeton, or from our history department 鈥斅燼longside some junior scholars, recent Ph.D.s. I quite like that mix, and I think it brings some interesting perspectives,鈥� von der Goltz said.

For Inventing the Silent Majority, von der Goltz grouped together pieces that dealt with similar topics 鈥斅燼 section on race, for example, includes articles on both the American George Wallace and the British Enoch Powell, whose rhetoric on race could be strikingly similar. But there鈥檚 an overarching theme as well: Each piece in the book deals in some way with the theme of conservative reactions to an era of rapid change.

鈥淭he 1960s and 1970s were this period where you saw massive transformations in nearly every social realm 鈥斅爀conomic shifts, civil rights in the U.S., race resurfacing in a powerful way with mass immigration in Europe,鈥� von der Goltz said. 鈥淭hose produce a lot of anxieties. Conservatives, seen as guardians of the status quo, tend to benefit from those anxieties.鈥�

It鈥檚 tempting to draw parallels between the movements studied in von der Goltz鈥檚 book and the 鈥渟ilent majorities鈥� (or, at least, pluralities) who contributed to recent unexpected victories for nationalist movements, like the election of President Donald Trump in the United States and the successful Brexit movement in the United Kingdom. Von der Goltz notes there are obvious differences between the two eras, but she does believe that studying the older movements can be instructive in understanding today鈥檚.

鈥淚 quite like the Mark Twain quote, 鈥楬istory never repeats itself, but sometimes it rhymes,鈥欌�� von der Goltz said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e at a similar moment of widespread dislocation and transformation, and in that sense, the 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s have some real echoes in the present.鈥�

Inventing the Silent Majority in Western Europe and the United States: Conservatism in the 1960s and 1970s is available from .