Liberalism Books - Page 5

Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist

Mike Farrell

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From its opening pages, Mike Farrell's new memoir reveals the distinctive voice of a man for whom life is an ongoing odyssey of self-discovery, personal commitment, and uncompromising social engagement.

With deep insight and disarming candor, Farrell describes his early years as a timid but restless teenager in West Hollywood, delivering groceries to the homes of Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Jimmy Stewart, and countless other celebrities, while dreaming of having his own career as an actor. In stark but riveting language, he relates his formative years as a Marine recruit, confused, conflicted, and eager to prove himself as a man.

Farrell humorously portrays his professional development from a young soap opera player on Days of Our Lives to the amiable star of two popular television series, M*A*S*H and Providence, to the respected producer of successful motion pictures like Dominick and Eugene and Patch Adams.

At the heart of his story, Farrell narrates his public struggle to be a responsible citizen of the world. From his firsthand accounts of the ravages of war and oppression in Cambodia, El Salvador, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and the Gaza Strip, to his tireless advocacy against capital punishment, to his deep commitment to environmental causes, Farrell portrays each of these experiences with passion, outrage, and stubborn optimism.

LIBERAL MIND, THE

KENNETH MINOGUE

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Editorial Review:

The Liberal Mind attempts to uncover the philosophy of liberalism and lay bare its implications. What is Man? How does he think and feel? What is the place of Reason in human affairs? How should men live? What is politics, and what is it for? Kenneth Minogue offers a brilliant and provocative exploration of liberalism in the Western world today: its roots and its influences, its present state, and its prospects in the new century. While few - especially in America - embrace the description of liberal, Minogue argues, most Americans and most Europeans behave as liberals. At least they are the heirs of what Minogue describes as "the triumph of an enlarged, flexible, and pragmatic version of liberalism." The past two centuries have been characterised, in the West at least, by "the fury of old ideological battles...such as: A planned economy, or free enterprise? Individual thrift, or social services? Free trade, or protection?" These battles have largely been completed - and, many would say, have been won by the champions of, respectively, free enterprise, individual thrift, and free trade.

Liberalism Ancient and Modern

Leo Strauss

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Battle Royal! 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 103 people found this review helpful.

At first Liberalism and Ancient and Modern square off against one another in the dusty city square. They circle, making faints, looking for an opening in their opponent's defenses. Ancient Liberalism strikes first, grappling with Modern. They strain, the sweat beeding on their brows as they try to gain advantage. Who will come out the victor? Will Ancient apply its fearsome sleeper hold? Will Ancient cheat, ignoring the rules of battle? Read Strauss' excellent, action packed novel in order to find out!

Editorial Review:

Revered and reviled, Leo Strauss has left a rich legacy of work that continues to spark discussion and controversy. This volume of essays ranges over critical themes that define Strauss's thought: the tension between reason and revelation in the Western tradition, the philsophical roots of liberal democracy, and especially the conflicting yet complementary relationship between ancient and modern liberalism. For those seeking to become acquainted with this provocative thinker, one need look no further.

Thomas Paine: Apostle of Freedom

Jack Fruchtman

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Definitive book on Paine 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 24 people found this review helpful.

The American Revolution's roots in the British which many people thought was 'betrayed' by parliament when it restored the monarchy, the roots of common British and American democratic ideals emerging from the dissenting religions and their notions of justice and equality (it's said that British socialism has more Methodism than Marx in it), the frustrations and ideals of British republicans who invested so much of their hope in the American colonies (not then 'United') shows that even in the l8th century (and presumably before and since) there is a community of men and women who, irrespective of nationality, place justice and liberty above all other human aspirations. What we learn from this book was that Tom Paine wasn't just a great British radical, a great founding father of the American Revolution, an active member of the revolutionary French Tribunal -- he was a critic of all unearned or abused authority wherever he saw it -- from George III to George Washington -- and that he foresaw a world in which every soul enjoyed the same rights and liberties. It was his internationalism, his understanding of the drawbacks as well as the virtues of populist democracy, that made him so relevant to modern readers. You can be sure that Tom Paine would have been at the Seattle demonstrations and would have no doubt been considerably more eloquent in his criticisms of international big business than anyone alive today! He speaks to us as clearly and as authoritatively as he spoke to his first readers -- who made his work best-sellers in America, Britain and France -- and this is the first book I have read which does its great subject the justice he deserves. He shouldn't just have a statue in Washington -- he should have one in London and Paris. It is his ideas of common liberty and justice which unite people around the world, perhaps even more now than in his own day. Read this book and you will understand how valuable democracy is and how hard it was to win, how hard it remains to keep it vital and uncorrupted. Everyone interested in modern politics should read this book.

Editorial Review:

The leading Thomas Paine expert in the U.S. presents both a biography of the controversial Founding Father and an analysis of his works. Known as "the Voice of the Revolution, " Paine was a truly original thinker, a man whose magnificient, freedom-loving spirit is richly captured in this major biography.

The Democratic Paradox

Chantal Mouffe

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From the theory of ""deliberative democracy"" to the politics of the ""third way,"" the present Zeitgeist is characterised by an attempt to negate the inherently conflictual nature of democratic politics. Political thought and practice are stifled by a misconceived search fro consensus and the promotion of a bland social unanimity which, as Chantal Mouffe shows, far from being the sign of progress, constitute a serious threat for democratic institutions. Indeed, in many countries this 'consensus of the centre' is providing a platform for the growth of populist right-wing parties which, by presenting themselves as the only 'anti-establishment' forces, are trying to occupy the terrain of contestation deserted by the left. Taking issue with the work of John Rawls and Jurgen Habermas on one side, and with the tenets of the third way as practised by Tony Blair and theorised by Anthony Giddens on the other, Mouffe brings to the fore the paradoxical nature of modern liberal democracy. Against those who affirm that, with the demise of the left/right divide, antagonism has been eliminated from contemporary post-industrial societies and that an all-inclusive politics has become possible, she argues that the category of the 'adversary' plays a central role in the very dynamics of modern democracy. Drawing on the work of Wittgenstein and Derrida, and engaging with the provocative theses of Carl Schmitt, she proposes a new understanding of democracy in terms of 'agonistic pluralism' which acknowledges the ineradicability of antagonism and the impossibility of a final resolution of conflicts.

An Intellectual History of Liberalism

Pierre Manent

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Highlighting the social tensions that confront the liberal tradition, Pierre Manent draws a portrait of what we, citizens of modern liberal democracies, have become. For Manent, a discussion of liberalism encompasses the foundations of modern society, its secularism, its individualism, and its conception of rights. The frequent incapacity of the morally neutral, democratic state to further social causes, he argues, derives from the liberal stance that political life does not serve a higher purpose. Through quick-moving, highly synthetic essays, he explores the development of liberal thinking in terms of a single theme: the decline of theological politics. The author traces the liberal stance to Machiavelli, who, in seeking to divorce everyday life from the pervasive influence of the Catholic church, separated politics from all notions of a cosmological order. What followed, as Manent demonstrates in his analyses of Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Guizot, and Constant, was the evolving concept of an individual with no goals outside the confines of the self and a state with no purpose but to prevent individuals from dominating one another. Weighing both the positive and negative effects of such a political arrangement, Manent raises important questions about the fundamental political issues of the day, among them the possibility of individual rights being reconciled with the necessary demands of political organization, and the desirability of a government system neutral about religion but not about public morals.

Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show

Geoff Nunberg

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How to tilt public perceptions 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 15 people found this review helpful.

"Talking Right" by Geoffrey Nunberg is a timely analysis of the lopsided and dysfunctional status of U.S. political discourse. Mr. Nunberg is a linguistics professor who explains how the Republican Party's privileged relationship with the media has helped to define the political narrative, which in turn has effectively tilted public perceptions to the political Right. However, by deconstructing the manner in which the Right's political language has been frequently served up as a smokescreen to obscure its radical neoconservative agenda, the author helps us understand how the political Left can present an alternative discourse that could resonate with the vast majority of Americans. Assiduously researched and cogently argued, this thoughtful, nuanced and highly readable text should interest a wide audience.

Mr. Nunberg presents a brief history of the neoconservative movement to recount how language has been deployed in order to associate particular words and phrases with politically-charged meanings. For example, the phrase 'cultural elite' was introduced by Vice President Dan Quayle in 1992 and succeeded in connecting Hollywood entertainment with sectors of the public who might have felt apprehension about social change. Indeed, Mr. Nunberg points out that since the 1960s the Republican Party has adroitly manufactured and magnified the importance of Pat Buchanan's 'culture war' in a way that has convinced large blocs of the working class to vote against its own material interests. Unfortunately, as liberals are reduced to a snobbish and out-of-touch caricature of the consumer culture imagination, Mr. Nunberg contends that the Democratic Party has failed to articulate a meaningful narrative of its own to inspire the faithful or to define the Party's mission.

Nonetheless, Mr. Nunberg believes that the Democrats can yet prevail if it dares to once again speak truth to power. Mr. Nunberg cites Bill Clinton's highly effective narrative about the powerless versus the powerful during the 1992 campaign as an example of how a message can resonate with an increasingly insecure working class beset with economic grievances. To that end, the author goes on to argue that in the wake of the Bush administration's disastrous policies (including preemptive war, fiscally irresponsible tax breaks and reckless environmental rollbacks), liberals have an excellent opportunity to articulate a new popular narrative of working-class struggle in the pursuit of economic justice and equality.

I highly recommend this important book to everyone, and especially to those interested in media and politics.

Editorial Review:

Talking Right is Nunberg's fierce and funny narrative of how the political right has ushered in a new linguistic order, aided unwittingly by the liberal media. While Democrats wade through wonky locutions like "social security lockbox," and "single payer," the right has become harder, meaner, and better at claiming words like "values," "government," "faith," and "freedom" for its own. In effect, conservatives have shifted the political center of gravity of the language itself to the right. "Whatever our politics," Nunberg observes, "when we talk about politics nowadays, we can't help using language that embodies a conservative worldview."

This new paperback edition of Talking Right, featuring a step-back cover and a new introduction by the author, will be catnip to political junkies as the presidential election campaign rhetoric heats up.

Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought

Uday Singh Mehta

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Editorial Review:

We take liberalism to be a set of ideas committed to political rights and self-determination, yet it also served to justify an empire built on political domination. Uday Mehta argues that imperialism, far from contradicting liberal tenets, in fact stemmed from liberal assumptions about reason and historical progress. Confronted with unfamiliar cultures such as India, British liberals could only see them as backward or infantile. In this, liberals manifested a narrow conception of human experience and ways of being in the world.

Ironically, it is in the conservative Edmund Burke—a severe critic of Britain's arrogant, paternalistic colonial expansion—that Mehta finds an alternative and more capacious liberal vision. Shedding light on a fundamental tension in liberal theory, Liberalism and Empire reaches beyond post-colonial studies to revise our conception of the grand liberal tradition and the conception of experience with which it is associated.

Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford Political Theory)

Will Kymlicka

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The increasingly multicultural fabric of modern societies has given rise to many new issues and conflicts, as ethnic and national minorities demand recognition and support for their cultural identity. This book presents a new conception of the rights and status of minority cultures. It argues that certain "collective rights" of minority cultures are consistent with liberal democratic principles, and that standard liberal objections to such rights can be answered. However, the author emphasizes that no single formula can be applied to all groups, and that the needs and aspirations of immigrants are very different from those of indigenous peoples and national minorities. He looks at issues such as language rights, group representation, religious education, federalism, and secession--issues central to an understanding of multicultural politics, but which have been neglected in contemporary liberal theory. Scholars of political theory and philosophy, as well as the general reader, will find this work to be the most comprehensive analysis to date of this crucial political issue.

Liberal Beginnings: Making a Republic for the Moderns

Andreas Kalyvas, Ira Katznelson

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The book examines the origins and development of the modern liberal tradition and explores the relationship between republicanism and liberalism between 1750 and 1830. The authors consider the diverse settings of Scotland, the American colonies, the new United States, and France and examine the writings of six leading thinkers of this period: Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, Germaine de Staël, and Benjamin Constant. The book traces the process by which these thinkers transformed and advanced the republican project, both from within and by introducing new elements from without. Without compromising civic principles or abandoning republican language, they came to see that unrevised, the republican tradition could not grapple successfully with the political problems of their time. By investing new meanings, arguments, and justifications into existing republican ideas and political forms, these innovators fashioned a doctrine for a modern republic, the core of which was surprisingly liberal.