The Conservative Baby Boomers' Magazine: A History of The American Spectator and the Conservative Intellectual Movement, 1967-2001 Public
Spillman, Daniel Glenn (2013)
Published
Abstract
This dissertation examines the history of The American Spectator (TAS), a conservative opinion journal founded by students in 1967, and its relationship to the conservative intellectual movement in America between 1967 and 2001. It argues that a strong opposition to 1960s radicalism defined TAS's editors' conservatism. In addition to a close reading and analysis of TAS, my study relies on an extensive analysis of published primary sources such as newspapers, journals, memoirs, and Congressional investigative records, as well as unpublished archival materials.
The dissertation stresses several themes. As TAS waged the 1960s generation's culture battles, it did so from a largely secular framework. TAS was the only student magazine--right or left--to survive the 1960s and grow into a national publication. It did so because its editors were willing to make new allies outside the conservative movement, able to win the support of a burgeoning network of conservative institutions and philanthropists, and willing to attack opponents, particularly anyone they connected to the 1960s left-wing generation. The magazine's use of satire and irreverent humor also made it distinctive on the right and attracted attention.
The introduction situates the dissertation within its historiographical context, stressing the importance of a generational analysis of the rise of conservatism in late 20th century America. The early chapters argue for the formative importance of the intragenerational strife on the campus of Indiana University in the 1960s and the magazine's important role in the slow integration of neoconservatives into the larger conservative intellectual movement in the 1970s. By the 1980s, TAS had become a national magazine, but as chapter three argues, it struggled with frustrations and new complexities during the Reagan administration.
The final two chapters examine TAS's turn to investigative journalism in the late 1980s and 1990s. Attacking Anita Hill, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and others, it attracted the attention and support of conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh. The magazine's circulation and influence grew rapidly until mismanagement and a federal investigation brought about its demise in 2001. An epilogue examines its slow revival in 2002 and subsequent reemergence as a national conservative opinion magazine.
Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………. …………..……………………….……….1
Chapter 1: An Alternative to Student Radicals: Campus Conservatism and the Founding of The American Spectator, 1967-1973…….…………………...31
Chapter 2. Ecumenical Conservatism and the Secular Culture Wars: The American Spectator in the 1970s…………………………………….………..….......81
Chapter 3: The Wasted Opportunity: The American Spectator during the Reagan Years, 1980-1988………………………………………………...…..…………..131
Chapter 4: Right Wing Muckraking and the Culture Wars: The American Spectator's Turn to Investigative Journalism, 1988-1992 ..……………….…..…...…186
Chapter 5: "The Bible of the Clinton-Haters": Troopergate, the "Arkansas Project" and The American Spectator's Crackup, 1993-2001………………………….240
Epilogue: The Regnery Revival: The American Spectator Since 2001…....……..…297
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………311
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