The Betrayal of Liberalism: How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster the Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control [Paperback]

Hilton Kramer (Editor), Roger Kimball (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 1999

Just fifty years ago the literary critic Lionel Trilling spoke of liberalism as “not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition” in American society. At the turn of the twentieth century this is clearly no longer the case, when conservative ideas have succeeded in many areas of public policy. Yet America’s mainstream institutions—the media, the academy, popular culture, religion, the law—remain largely under the sway of a liberal ethos. In this incisive collection of essays which appeared originally in The New Criterion, nine distinguished critics and observers examine the origins and prospects of liberalism, from its roots in thinkers such as Rousseau and Mill to its troubled legacy in twentieth-century pursuits. They are cogent in explaining the compromising effects of liberalism in the moral and intellectual life of our culture, and seek to disentangle what is beneficent from what is destructive in its ideas. At a time when basic liberal assumptions about man and society are so deeply entrenched that they go largely unrecognized—and unexamined—The Betrayal of Liberalism offers a rewarding and enriching analysis. Its contributors include Roger Scruton, Keith Windschuttle, Hadley Arkes, Robert Conquest, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Robert Kagan, John Silber, John O’Sullivan, Hilton Kramer, and Roger Kimball.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Originally published in the neo-conservative journal the New Centurion, the ten essays in this provocative anthology persistently attack present-day liberals for "betraying" their time-honored heritage of freedom and equality. The editors' introductory essay, which bears the book's title, argues that contemporary liberalism seeks to "impose an ideology of virtue" on society. The remaining essays relate this criticism to the areas of law, religion, foreign policy, historical narrative, and a construed connection between totalitarianism and liberalism. Although the essays range from philosophical analysis (Roger Kimball) and historical narrative (Keith Windschuttle) to autobiographical memoir (John Silber), the essayists focus their common disdain on the philosophies of famous political theorists (e.g., Rousseau and Marx) and on political treatises based on moral relativism (e.g., John Stuart Mill)--ideas that they believe have created a "liberalism" whose adherents today act like their historical adversaries on the right. For larger academic and public libraries.
-Jack Forman, San Diego Mesa Coll. Lib.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 1-56663-258-7 Ideologues refighting a familiar battle. To find anything of value in this volume you must begin by ignoring its basic premise. Kramer and Kimball, editor and managing editor, respectively, of The New Criterion, are out to unveil ``liberalism's betrayal of its own vaunted values and goals.'' They argue that in pursuing equality, liberalism has sacrificed its core value, freedom, thereby producing a discrepancy between liberal institutions/policies and liberal principles. But the relationship between freedom and equality has been explored many times with more subtlety and insight than here. Fortunately, the volume's contributors mostly address other issues, sharing only the editors' strange notion that ``liberalism'' is some threatening entity that, quite apart from any specific principles, has infected much of our society. Apparently the invidiousness of liberalism stems in part from its ability to assume multiple, even contradictory guises. Contrast, for example, Elshtain's argument that a rigid liberal insistence on tolerance is not necessarily a neutral stance when applied to religious beliefs with Silber's mostly autobiographical essay urging that liberalism implies only a commitment to rational procedures, or Windschuttle's excoriation of liberal anti-imperialism in Britain with Kagan's concern that a liberal embrace of manifest destiny promotes an overly aggressive and expansive American foreign policy. Is it possible that these authors read each other's essays and reflected even for a moment on the advisability of grouping their arguments together as if they were attacking the same thing? In fact, several of the essays, especially those by Elshtain and Kagan, and O'Sullivan's examination of the moral consequences of impatience, are genuinely provocative, but it would be easier to take them seriously if they were not packaged together in an assault on the decadence of liberalism. It's hard to get excited about essays presented as such relentless polemic. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (October 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566632587
• ISBN-13: 978-1566632584
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,151,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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84 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Founding Values Transformed into Marxist Egalitarianism, May 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Betrayal of Liberalism: How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster the Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control (Paperback)

Kramer and Kimball show how classical liberalism (free-markets, free-people, small government) has been betrayed and abandoned in favor of a "modernized" version that inverts the priorities of the classicists -- namely the promotion of controlled-markets, regulated-people, and an activist government. Freedom (personal or economic) is no longer the most important guiding principle. Rather egalitarianism and vague notions of equality and social justice are promoted instead. The consequence has been the creation of a top-heavy administrative (bureaucratic, regulated) State that continually seeks to increase its sphere of influence -- a centralized federal power that consume 20% of the nation's production. And while modern liberalism still pays lip service to personal freedom, its ambition for egalitarianism necessarily impose on both economic and personal freedom -- hence the books subtitle, "How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster The Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control." This book is an essential read for those wishing to understand how American values were transformed from those of the Founding Fathers to those of Marx.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where Have All The Real Liberals Gone?, July 31, 2000

By 

Steven Fantina (Phillipsburg, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Betrayal of Liberalism: How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster the Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control (Paperback)

This olio of essays explores a variety of factions where true liberalism has been hijacked by groups with an agenda that is anything but liberal. In issues as diverse as tobacco to gun control to federal funding of the arts, the modern so-called liberals are virtually identical in their beliefs to Adolph Hitler-someone who never wore the title of liberal.

The nine authors are a mixed lot, but all have obviously done their homework, and even the less-than-stellar efforts will stimulate any open mind. Some of the pieces prove very readable, while getting through others is a tad of a struggle. Among the strongest are Robert Conquest's "Liberals and Totalitarianism" which examines the growing unnatural alliance between these strangest of political bedfellows. His reasoned suasion piqued my interest to read his current "Reflections of a Ravaged Century." Australian thinker Keith Windscuttle (an unusual last name must have been a prerequisite for contributing to this tome) covers "Liberalism and Imperialism" in another standout exploration.

Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball who co-edited the volume contributed a joint exordium that clearly sets the parameters of this disquisition. Kimball also contributes an essay on the philosophy of freedom that contains this courageous common sense gem, "notwithstanding the slogans of our cultural commissars, `diversity' itself is neither good nor bad." Despite the somewhat sluggish pace of a few entries, this concoction warrants a perusal especially by those pure liberals who resent the piracy of their nomenclature.

54 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boortz and Horowitz will be among the validated..., February 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Betrayal of Liberalism: How the Disciples of Freedom and Equality Helped Foster the Illiberal Politics of Coercion and Control (Paperback)

Although the current mavens of the "liberal" school will shriek apostasy, The "Betrayal of Liberalism" nails it precisely and unsparingly. The question is will anyone take to it to heart? Preaching to the choir has been the failure of many excellent treatises on the bankruptcy of modern liberalism. Offending the liberal orthodoxy may make new friends among the conservative movement but it does little for one in the world of culture, academia, and least of in the arts. For all of that, there are still authors who struggle on speaking truth to power and exploding the base nastiness of modern liberalism. The price over time is that one will be smeared relentlessly until even if one's work is never widely read, the nasty things averred of the author are. For good measure, for a fictional look at a debasement of freedom imposed and for the most part cheerfully accepted, what liberalism hopes to attain in other words, read "Transfer-the end of the beginning" by Jerry Furland.