Americans live in a liberal democracy. Yet, although democracy is widely touted today, liberalism is scorned by both the right and the left. The United States stands poised between its liberal democratic tradition and the illiberal alternatives of liberalism's critics. In an engaging and informative discussion, McGowan offers a ringing endorsement of American liberalism's basic principles, values, and commitments. He explains that the liberalism of the founders distributed power widely in order to limit the power any one entity could exercise over others. Their aim was to provide for all an effective freedom that combined the right to self-determination with the ability to achieve one's self-chosen goals. In tracing this history, McGowan offers a clear vision of liberalism's foundational values as America's best guarantee today of liberty and the peace in which to exercise it.
American Liberalism
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
"Democracy ain't worth a damn if it's not liberal. And liberalism isn't worth much if it isn't democratic." So says author and academic McGowan, who weighs in on the contemporary political scene for a decidedly more general audience than his previous, more academic work (Postmodernism and its Critics; Democracy's Children; etc.). Contrasting the values of today's conservatives to their liberal opponents', McGowan argues convincingly that today's liberals are far more in line with the founders of the U.S. than conservatives, whose "social and economic concentrations of power... are as threatening to liberty as political concentrations of power." Touching base on a number of contentious (if familiar) issues-constitutional law, immigration policy, pluralism, economic regulation, widening income disparity and the role of the neo-cons in President Bush's diplomatic strategy-McGowan provides some historical and philosophical context, but most of this volume reads like an election-prep talking points memo, picking apart the weak spots in conservative thought and policy, and cheerleading liberal ideas of public protection and the general welfare. Unwavering in its sense of righteousness, this detailed primer may preach to the choir, but it will prove insightful for armchair democrats and the progressive-curious.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"A vigorous defense of the American liberal tradition."
-- Political Science Quarterly
"A full-throated, multidimensional defense of liberalism against critics. . . . Recommended."
— CHOICE
"If we ever get to a point where a liberal renaissance in American politics comes to be . . . we'll have McGowan's book . . . to thank for that moment's inspiration."
— American Book Review
-- Political Science Quarterly
"A full-throated, multidimensional defense of liberalism against critics. . . . Recommended."
— CHOICE
"If we ever get to a point where a liberal renaissance in American politics comes to be . . . we'll have McGowan's book . . . to thank for that moment's inspiration."
— American Book Review
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enriching, Briliant, Accessible,
By
This review is from: American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman Series) (Hardcover)
John McGowan reminds us that in our current political climate we are in danger of damaging a central mechanism of peace and prosperity: our democracy's commitment to liberalism. The miracle of the founding experiment in American democracy is that a balance of powers was wedded to an understanding (however imperfect) of the need for equality. McGowan's passionate, interesting book is a civics lesson for Americans who have forgotten the importance of those ideas and ideals for the current and future stability and prosperity of our country. The book reminds the reader of the arguments of the Founders, Madison chief among them, and what is at stake in the current illiberal tendencies of our Republic. I found the book thrilling in its clear articulation of what we gain (conservatives and liberals alike) from the core principles of liberalism at the heart of US government. In many respects, the American Experiment is fragile, and we need to remind ourselves just how precious and rare our way of self-governance is in human history. Despite the last eight years there is much to be hopeful about and for. McGowan gives voice to that hope. It is a wonderful, praiseworthy achievement.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Accessible, Unapologetic, Thoughtful Interpretation of an American Liberalism For Our Times,
This review is from: American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman Series) (Paperback)
McGowan's book is the latest of several book-length efforts in recent years to explain and make the case for a societal recommitment to more egalitarian self-understandings, values and policies.
Several others--Paul Starr's Freedom's Power, John E. Schwarz's Freedom Reclaimed, and William Galston in his April 2005 Washington Monthly essay "Taking Liberty"--use "freedom" as the overarching frame or construct. As did President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he said "Necessitous men are not free men" in making the case for a second Bill of Rights. The British philosopher Brian Barry uses a "justice" construct in his Why Social Justice Matters. McGowan seeks to explain and advance a modern American liberalism, at the heart of which is the concept of "effective freedom". Those who are hungry or in poor health, who are poorly educated, who are jobless, are not effectively free to the degree they lack capacities essential to choosing and creating a good life for themselves. Democracy without freedom understood in this way is worthless in his view. Also central to the liberal tradition is the deliberate creation of multiple sources of power, in order to try to prevent tyrannies from whatever source--whether it be an overreaching, corrupt, or captured government; aggrandizing economic actors who hoard the benefits of prosperity and prevent or undermine regulations necessary to protect the public; or a military-industrial complex run amok. A pluralistic society is inevitable in any liberal society and superior to the alternatives, which all involve illegitimate coercion or unacceptable constraints on individual freedom. McGowan explains why he believes there is a direct line from James Madison to Alexis de Tocqueville to moderns such as John Dewey and FDR that reflects this egalitarian understanding of American liberalism. The author is an academic at the University of North Carolina whose prose is accessible to interested lay audiences. He uses the words "underwrote" or "underwrites" annoyingly often. He sometimes has a tendency to pose "either-or" contrasts--either there is equality or there is not; either there are civil liberties during wartime or there are not--that don't seem to properly recognize matters of degree or possible acceptable middle-ground compromises (on civil liberties in the midst of ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, for an example of a contrasting way of thinking, see Benjamin Wittes' Law and the Long War). His level of knowledge on some matters about which he opines--such as on alternative forms of governmental representation--seems somewhat shallow. But overall, I found this an enjoyable, stimulating, and worthy read, with excellent commentary, sources, and data in the notes as a bonus. I recommend it for those receptive to or interested in a thought-provoking interpretation of liberalism that offers, for critics, a worthy challenge and corrective to the various straw-man versions of it much in evidence in recent years and, for sympathizers, an unapologetic case for those struggling to locate an effective rhetoric or more clearly assert its central premises. Better than 4 stars, but less than 4.5--I'll give it 4.4. So I'll round down--barely.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
(learn more)
deliberative democracy, effective freedom, effective liberty, liberal polity, egalitarian liberalism Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, New Haven, Princeton University Press, Yale University Press, John Dewey, Harvard University Press, Census Bureau, University of Chicago Press, African Americans, James Madison, Portable Conservative Reader, Hannah Arendt, Basic Books, Adam Smith, Supreme Court, Russell Kirk, University of Minnesota Press, World War, Civil War, John Rawls, Wall Street Journal, Brian Barry Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
deliberative democracy, effective freedom, effective liberty, liberal polity, egalitarian liberalism Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, United States, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, New Haven, Princeton University Press, Yale University Press, John Dewey, Harvard University Press, Census Bureau, University of Chicago Press, African Americans, James Madison, Portable Conservative Reader, Hannah Arendt, Basic Books, Adam Smith, Supreme Court, Russell Kirk, University of Minnesota Press, World War, Civil War, John Rawls, Wall Street Journal, Brian Barry Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
So You'd Like to...
|
|
