Post-Depression isolation made conservatives unusually open to rethinking laissez-faire.

Evidence

The relative isolation of conservative intellectuals in the wake of the Great Depression had created an extraordinarily fl uid ideological environment, in which market advocates were eager to recognize the limits to laissezfaire and social traditionalists were quick to acknowledge the benefi ts of the market mechanism. Hayek was not trying to adjudicate between static ideologies, but rather to develop one anew. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 264

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader MPS historiography (Mirowski, Plehwe) on how the Depression reshaped liberal ideology. — connects to: The Depression forced postwar conservatives to rebuild capitalism’s foundations, not defend them — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 33; Depression-era American conservatism was weak as an intellectual force — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1445

Broader Connections

• Depression-era American conservatism was weak as an intellectual force #complicates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1445