Vichy Conservatives: A Pathology of the Moderate Right’s Reaction to Hungary

Participants

• Paul du Quenoy, President and Publisher of Academica Press and President of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute

Description

The global rise of populism has contributed to the evolution of conservatism as a durable post-liberal political ideology.  Most American conservatives are sympathetic to this new conservatism but a small but well-placed minority – especially in the establishment Republican Party and legacy media – reject it in favor of a de facto rapprochement with the Left. Some notable figures in this camp focus on the post-liberal Right’s interest in Hungary as a case of departing from traditional conservatism.  Paul du Quenoy call these conservatives ‘Vichy Cons’, following the defeatism of France’s wartime Vichy regime, and in his lecture explains why he thinks that ‘Vichy Cons’ are so exercised by affinities between Hungary and the new American right, and how their antipathy is rooted in their own threatened position in American politics.

Dr. Paul du Quenoy is the President and Publisher of Academica Press and President of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute. He received his Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University and taught history, humanities, and fine arts at Georgetown, the American University in Cairo, and the American University of Beirut. Twice a Fulbright scholar, he has held fellowships from the American Historical Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Hokkaido University in Japan. His books include Stage Fright: Politics and the Performing Arts in Late Imperial Russia (2009), Wagner and French Muse: Music, Society, and Nation in Modern France (2011), Alexander Serov and the Birth of the Russian Modern (2016), Through the Years With Prince Charming: The Collected Music Criticism of Paul du Quenoy, 2010-2020 (2021), and Cancel Culture: Tales from the Front Lines (2021). His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Post, the Washington Times, The New Criterion, Spectator, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the American Conservative, the European Conservative, City Journal, Tablet, Musical America, and numerous other publications.

Date: 22 May 2023, 5.30 p.m.

Venue: Lónyay-Hatvany Villa - 1. Csónak str., 1015 Budapest

Participation in the event is free, but registration is required, which can be done by email at events@danubeinstitute.hu or by clicking on the R.S.V.P. button.