Liberalism Against Itself : Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moyn, Samuel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cold War--Philosophy.

Cold War.

Intellectuals--History--20th century.

Intellectuals.

Liberalism--20th century--Philosophy.

Liberalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2023.

Summary:

The Cold War roots of liberalism's present crisis By the middle of the twentieth century, many liberals looked glumly at the world modernity had brought about, with its devastating wars, rising totalitarianism, and permanent nuclear terror. They concluded that, far from offering a solution to these problems, the ideals of the Enlightenment, including emancipation and equality, had instead created them. The historian of political thought Samuel Moyn argues that the liberal intellectuals of the Cold War era-among them Isaiah Berlin, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Karl Popper, Judith Shklar, and Lionel Trilling-transformed liberalism but left a disastrous legacy for our time. In his iconoclastic style, Moyn outlines how Cold War liberals redefined the ideals of their movement and renounced the moral core of the Enlightenment for a more dangerous philosophy: preserving individual liberty at all costs. In denouncing this stance, as well as the recent nostalgia for Cold War liberalism as a means to counter illiberal values, Moyn presents a timely call for a new emancipatory and egalitarian liberal philosophy-a path to undoing the damage of the Cold War and to ensuring the survival of liberalism.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Introduction

1 Against the Enlightenment: Judith Shklar

2 Romanticism and the Highest Life: Isaiah Berlin

3 The Terrors of History and Progress: Karl Popper

4 Jewish Christianity: Gertrude Himmelfarb

5 White Freedom: Hannah Arendt

6 Garrisoning the Self: Lionel Trilling

Epilogue: Why Cold War Liberalism Keeps Failing

Notes

Photograph Credits

Acknowledgments

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-300-27494-7

OCLC:

1393241017