There was a time when liberalism was an ism like any other, but that time, writes Michael Walzer, is gone. "Liberal" now conveys not a specific ideology but a moral stance, so the word is best conceived not as a noun but as an adjective-one is a "liberal democrat" or a "liberal nationalist." Walzer itemizes the characteristics described by "liberal" in an inventory of his own deepest political and moral commitments-among other things, to the principle of equality, to the rule of law, and to a pluralism that is both political and cultural. Unabashedly asserting that liberalism comprises a universal set of values ("they must be universal," he writes, "since they are under assault around the world"), Walzer reminds us in this inspiring book why those values are worth fighting for.
Author(s): Michael Walzer
Publisher: Yale University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 176
City: New Haven; London
Copyright
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
1 Why the Adjective?
2 Liberal Democrats
3 Liberal Socialists
4 Liberal Nationalists and Internationalists
5 Liberal Communitarians
6 Liberal Feminists
7 Liberal Professors and Intellectuals
8 Liberal jews
9 Who Is and Who Isn’t?
Bibliography
Index