Studying the interlinked concepts of isms and ideology

Sometimes a conceptual historian cannot focus on one word or phrase only. Everything may seem to be in motion within the topic: not only the target word, but also all the related terms are being transformed, making it difficult to construct a coherent argument about one concept. This challenge is particularly present when trying to understand what ‘ideology’ is and how it relates to particular isms such as liberalism, communism and conservatism. This chapter shows how to deal with the issue of anachronism that is apparent in the use of ‘ideology’ and ‘isms’ both as analytical categories and in everyday speech. A conceptual history approach helps us understand how everyday rhetorical moves claiming that someone is being ideological relate to theoretical discussions about what ideology is. Since the transformation of isms and ideology was a global phenomenon that connected different social groups from academic theses to grass-roots mobilization, this chapter also shows how to write conceptual history using several types of sources that relate to different genres. Furthermore, it shows how to combine quantitative assessment with qualitative interpretation.