Conservative Moments: An Interactive History

POLITICS -- June 7, 2012 at 6:15 PM EDT

Conservative Moments: An Interactive History

We're now past the presidential primary season, when a wide field of contenders forced the diversity of the Republican Party into the spotlight and Democratic energies are united behind the party's incumbent. This focus has created something of a "conservative moment" in America.

From American Public Media's Public Insight Network, Conservative Moments: An Interactive Timeline charts political and cultural events in American conservatism, constructed from interviews and correspondence with hundreds of people across a wide spectrum of political thought.

Click here or on the image above to use the interactive timeline.

"Conservative" itself is not a terribly useful label to stick on a person's politics. Conservatism -- like any thriving movement or ideology -- is a continuum with distinct extremes and a thousand shades in between.

This project is about getting to know a broad, complex and sometimes fractious community. It's about creating a venue for American conservatives to tell the story of American conservatism in their own voices, from their own experiences. But these stories aren't just for conservatives and they aren't just about conservatism; they are about the things that shape us.

Jeff Severns Guntzel is a senior reporter for American Public Media's Public Insight Network.

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