Since Election Day, a host of scapegoats have been blamed for Mitt Romney’s campaign loss – Obama’s “gifts” to minorities, Governor Chris Christie, single women, Former President Bush – the list is tireless. Yet perhaps the most convincing factor has less to do with Romney and more with the Republican Party itself. Many have suggested that modern conservatism, in theory and practice, lacks cohesion, resulting in a divided and troubled party.

Jeff Bloodworth, contributor to New Books in Politics, seeks to sort out what has happened to modern political conservatism in a recent podcast. Bloodworth, recently shared his podcast interview with Patrick Allitt, author of The Conservatives: Ideas & Personalities Throughout American History. The two go back and forth tracing the history of conservatism from the age of the Federalists through modern times.

Allitt suggests that one major chasm in this body of thinking stems from the very nature of capitalism. Classic American conservatives long to preserve the capitalistic system, but this system must evolve to survive. Conservatism is mainly reactionary, but often it is too slow to change.

Allit in The Conservatives works through political archives and American history to answer the questions: what should be conserved, and why? Listen to the New Books in Politics interview to learn more.