MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 02656cam a2200313 a 4500
001 2011380772
003 DLC
005 20110722084715.0
008 110721r20102009nyu b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2011380772
020 $a9780307386250 (pbk.)
020 $a0307386252 (pbk.)
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dDLC
042 $apcc
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aJC574.2.U6$bW65 2010
082 00 $a320.51/3$222
100 1 $aWolfe, Alan,$d1942-
245 14 $aThe future of liberalism /$cAlan Wolfe.
250 $a1st Vintage Books ed.
260 $aNew York :$bVintage Books,$c2010.
300 $axxi, 335 p. ;$c21 cm.
500 $aOriginally published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. With new introd.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [291]-317) and index.
505 0 $aThe most appropriate political philosophy for our times -- In praise of artifice -- Equality's inevitability -- Why good poetry makes bad politics -- Mr. Schmitt goes to Washington -- How liberals should think about religion -- Open society and its friends -- Why conservatives can't govern -- Liberalism's promise.
520 $aWolfe mines the bedrock of the liberal tradition, explaining how Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, John Dewey, and other celebrated minds helped shape liberalism's central philosophy. Wolfe also examines those who have challenged liberalism since its inception, from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to modern conservatives, religious fundamentalists, and evolutionary theorists such as Richard Dawkins. Drawing on both the inspiration and insights of seminal works such as John Locke's Second Treatise on Government, Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment?," and Mill's On Liberty and The Subjection of Women, Wolfe ambitiously sets out to define what it truly means to be a liberal. He analyzes and applauds liberalism's capacious conception of human nature, belief that people outweigh ideology, passion for social justice, faith in reason and intellectual openness, and respect for individualism. And we see how the liberal tradition can influence and illuminate contemporary debates on immigration, abortion, executive power, religious freedom, and free speech. But Wolfe also makes it clear that before liberalism can be successfully applied to today's problems, it needs to be recovered, understood, and embraced--not just by Americans but by all modern people--as the most beneficial way to live in our complex modern world.--From publisher description.
650 0 $aLiberalism$zUnited States.
650 0 $aLiberalism.
651 0 $aUnited States$xPolitics and government$y21st century.