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The Virtues of Liberalism
This spirited analysis - and defense - of American liberalism demonstrates the complex and rich traditions of political, economic, and social discourse that have informed American democratic culture from the seventeenth century to the present. The Virtues of Liberalism provides a convincing response to critics both right and left. In contrast to prevailing tendencies to simplify and distort American liberalism. Kloppenberg shows how the multifaceted virtues of liberalism have inspired theorists and reformers from Thomas Jefferson and James Madison through Jane Addams and John Dewey to Martin Luther King, Jr., and then explains how these virtues persist in the work of some liberal democrats today. Endorsing the efforts of such neo-progressive and communitarian theorists and journalists as Michael Walzer, Jane Mans-bridge, Michael Sandel, and E. J. Dionne. Kloppenberg also offers a more acute analysis of the historical development of American liberalism and of the complex reasons why it has been transformed and made more vulnerable in recent decades.
- GenresHistory
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 15, 2020
A relatively brief, rewarding, but also dense set of essays on intellectual history. This is definitely not for the layman reader; I think they would find it a bit academic. However, I found most of it quite rewarding and interesting. There are some essays in here that get into the weeds of modern philosophy; I followed most of this, but it wasn't exactly what I came for. More compelling were the essays that focused on ideas in American history and an expanded notion of liberalism.
This book is called the virtues of liberalism not because it is a sustained defense of liberalism, but because it emphasizes that liberal thinkers and politicians, even in the era of so-called classical liberalism, were not merely amoral individualists as the modern caricature has it. Liberalism was always in balance with a civic republicanism, which emphasizes sacrifice for the common good, skepticism of centralized power, and small, local-level control and participation. Kloppenberg also stresses the importance of religion as a leavening factor that reduces hyper-individualism, alluding to thinkers like Tocqueville on this point. The central thinker of this book is Dewey. I've always had a tough time grasping Dewey's non-pedagogical thought. In this volume, Kloppenberg emphasizes Dewey's advocacy of participation in civic life as a way to balance the non-democratic tendencies of modern bureaucratic gov't. That's about all I took away in that regard.
Other essays in this volume will prove exceedingly helpful to those doing comps or seeking background info on intellectual history, particularly the second to last chapter on ideas in politics in the 20th century. Overall, this book is a good antidote to A. binary thinking about liberalism. In reality and in history, it has long been concerned with community, religion, and responsibility as well as rights. Kloppenberg ends this book with a compelling call for liberals to abandon their belief that religion must be diminished for liberal causes to succeed and reach out more to the religious, whose role in the history of liberalism is essential. Writers like Helena Rosenblatt and Alan Brinkley have also stressed these points in their studies of liberalism. B. The hyper-individualism of modern free-market fundamentalists (who draw on a highly distorted view of classical economists/liberals like Smith) as well as the identitarianism of the critical social justice left, which envisions responsibility only as compensating for mistreatment of identity groups. Instead, liberalism for Kloppenberg is an evolving effort to balance the rights of the individual with his responsibilities to various overlapping communities, as well as his need to be a part of communities in order to be happy.
This book is called the virtues of liberalism not because it is a sustained defense of liberalism, but because it emphasizes that liberal thinkers and politicians, even in the era of so-called classical liberalism, were not merely amoral individualists as the modern caricature has it. Liberalism was always in balance with a civic republicanism, which emphasizes sacrifice for the common good, skepticism of centralized power, and small, local-level control and participation. Kloppenberg also stresses the importance of religion as a leavening factor that reduces hyper-individualism, alluding to thinkers like Tocqueville on this point. The central thinker of this book is Dewey. I've always had a tough time grasping Dewey's non-pedagogical thought. In this volume, Kloppenberg emphasizes Dewey's advocacy of participation in civic life as a way to balance the non-democratic tendencies of modern bureaucratic gov't. That's about all I took away in that regard.
Other essays in this volume will prove exceedingly helpful to those doing comps or seeking background info on intellectual history, particularly the second to last chapter on ideas in politics in the 20th century. Overall, this book is a good antidote to A. binary thinking about liberalism. In reality and in history, it has long been concerned with community, religion, and responsibility as well as rights. Kloppenberg ends this book with a compelling call for liberals to abandon their belief that religion must be diminished for liberal causes to succeed and reach out more to the religious, whose role in the history of liberalism is essential. Writers like Helena Rosenblatt and Alan Brinkley have also stressed these points in their studies of liberalism. B. The hyper-individualism of modern free-market fundamentalists (who draw on a highly distorted view of classical economists/liberals like Smith) as well as the identitarianism of the critical social justice left, which envisions responsibility only as compensating for mistreatment of identity groups. Instead, liberalism for Kloppenberg is an evolving effort to balance the rights of the individual with his responsibilities to various overlapping communities, as well as his need to be a part of communities in order to be happy.
July 8, 2009
read first chapter - good. a lot to digest - need more time with this book.
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