
The Closing of the Liberal Mind
How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left
Kim R. Holmes(Author)
Encounter Books,USA (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 26. May 2016
Book
Hardback
312 pages
978-1-59403-851-8 (ISBN)
Description
A former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Kim R. Holmes surveys the state of liberalism in America today and finds that it is becoming its opposite--illiberalism--abandoning the precepts of open-mindedness and respect for individual rights, liberties, and the rule of law upon which the country was founded, and becoming instead an intolerant, rigidly dogmatic ideology that abhors dissent and stifles free speech. Tracing the new illiberalism historically to the radical Enlightenment, a movement that rejected the classic liberal ideas of the moderate Enlightenment that were prominent in the American Founding, Holmes argues that today's liberalism has forsaken its American roots, incorporating instead the authoritarian, anti-clerical, and anti-capitalist prejudices of the radical and largely European Left. The result is a closing of the American liberal mind. Where once freedom of speech and expression were sacrosanct, today liberalism employs speech codes, trigger warnings, boycotts, and shaming rituals to stifle freedom of thought, expression, and action.
It is no longer appropriate to call it liberalism at all, but illiberalism--a set of ideas in politics, government, and popular culture that increasingly reflects authoritarian and even anti-democratic values, and which is devising new strategies of exclusiveness to eliminate certain ideas and people from the political process. Although illiberalism has always been a temptation for American liberals, lurking in the radical fringes of the Left, it is today the dominant ideology of progressive liberal circles. This makes it a new danger not only to the once venerable tradition of liberalism, but to the American nation itself, which needs a viable liberal tradition that pursues social and economic equality while respecting individual liberties.
It is no longer appropriate to call it liberalism at all, but illiberalism--a set of ideas in politics, government, and popular culture that increasingly reflects authoritarian and even anti-democratic values, and which is devising new strategies of exclusiveness to eliminate certain ideas and people from the political process. Although illiberalism has always been a temptation for American liberals, lurking in the radical fringes of the Left, it is today the dominant ideology of progressive liberal circles. This makes it a new danger not only to the once venerable tradition of liberalism, but to the American nation itself, which needs a viable liberal tradition that pursues social and economic equality while respecting individual liberties.
More details
Edition
First Trade Paper Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
694 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-59403-851-8 (9781594038518)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kim R. Holmes is a Distinguished Fellow and former Vice President of The Heritage Foundation and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State. His published works include Rebound: Getting America Back to Great (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) and Liberty's Best Hope: American Leadership for the 21st Century (Heritage Foundation, 2007). He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University with a focus on European and American history.