THE END OF THE JOURNEY.

ESSAYS; HISTORY of war & society; CHAMBERS, Whittaker, 1901-1961; INTERNATIONAL relations, 1945-1989; HISTORY of conservatism; BUSH, George W. (George Walker), 1946-; 21ST century (Literary period)

The author, a biographer of Whittaker Chambers, reflects on Chambers' relationship to U.S. conservatism as a political movement. Chambers' history as a recanting Communist gave him a strongly Manichean worldview, with politics seen as a struggle between two competing ideas. This notion, which was more or less accurate during the Cold War, no longer applies to 21st century geopolitics. U.S. President George W. Bush and other conservatives think it does, with lamentable results.