Freedom of expression, long an issue that united liberals, now serves to drive them apart. Many feminists demand the banning of pornography; representatives of ethnic groups campaign for curbs on hate speech; liberal reformers work to restrict the funding of political campaigns and to regulate the press. Focusing on such issues, this book examines the collision of the traditional liberal ideals of equality and freedom with modern social structures, and speculates on what role the State might play in furthering public debate. The author analyzes the pressure on liberal thought resulting from such controversies as pornography, Mapplethorpe and artistic expression, the rights of street-corner orators, and the rise of the communications media.

Liberalism Divided is the first detailed study of British liberal thought in the interwar years. The author reassesses progressive liberalism in light of the partial reaction against the state provoked by World War I. The division of liberal thought into two streams--left-liberalism and centrist-liberalism--is explored, and the changing political theories of major new liberals such as L.T. Hobhouse and J.A. Hobson are contrasted with centrist-liberal ideas.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The acclaimed social psychologist challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liberals alike—a “landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself” (The New York Times Book Review). Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.

Freedom of expression, long an issue that united liberals, now serves to drive them apart. Many feminists demand the banning of pornography; representatives of ethnic groups campaign for curbs on hate speech; liberal reformers work to restrict the funding of political campaigns and to regulate the press. Focusing on such issues, this book examines the collision of the traditional liberal ideals of equality and freedom with modern social structures, and speculates on what role the State might play in furthering public debate. The author analyzes the pressure on liberal thought resulting from such controversies as pornography, Mapplethorpe and artistic expression, the rights of street-corner orators, and the rise of the communications media.

"One of the most important political books of 2018."—Rod Dreher, American Conservative Of the three dominant ideologies of the twentieth century—fascism, communism, and liberalism—only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism’s proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal rights while fostering incomparable material inequality; its legitimacy rests on consent, yet it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism; and in its pursuit of individual autonomy, it has given rise to the most far-reaching, comprehensive state system in human history. Here, Deneen offers an astringent warning that the centripetal forces now at work on our political culture are not superficial flaws but inherent features of a system whose success is generating its own failure.

Like its widely praised predecessor False Dawn, Two Faces of Liberalism, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as ''elegant and powerful,'' offers a thoughtful and provocative analysis of the liberal tradition in politics. John Gray, an eminent professor at the London School of Economics, ''picks large and interesting topics and says arresting things about them,'' according to the New York Review of Books. Two Faces of Liberalism argues that, in its beginning, liberalism contained two contradictory philosophies of tolerance. In one, it put forward the enlightenment vision of a universal civilization. In the other, it framed terms for peaceful coexistence between warring communities and between different ways of life. In this major contribution to political theory, Gray's new book ''takes us beyond the current debate''(The New York Times Book Review) of traditional liberalism to keep up with the complex political realities of today's increasingly divided world.

In Defense of Liberal Democracy is a clarion call for today's divided time: a bold reaffirmation of the liberal democratic principles that have carried America through each crisis in its history--and can do so again. Merging expert historical, political, and economic analysis, In Defense of Liberal Democracy shows how our recent technological revolution--what high-profile economist Manuel Hinds calls the Connectivity Revolution--has led to a crisis of divisiveness. Assessing the angry rhetoric and polarization of current political and social discourse in the US, Hinds considers the dangers of seeking populist solutions to our current upheaval and shows how the traditions and institutions of liberal democracy restored prosperity, freedom, and social equity during the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, and other periods of political instability. Hinds examines our national past and present (up to and including the 2020 presidential election) to illustrate how current events can be as dramatic as any historical legacy in warning us of the danger of abandoning our democratic principles.