Audiobook8 hours
The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century
Written by Helena Rosenblatt
Narrated by Xe Sands
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
The changing face of the liberal creed from the ancient world to today.
The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry-and a term of derision-in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking readers from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism," revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning.
In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights. She shows that it was the French Revolution that gave birth to liberalism and Germans who transformed it. Only in the mid-twentieth century did the concept become widely known in the United States-and then, as now, its meaning was hotly debated. Liberals were originally moralists at heart. They believed in the power of religion to reform society, emphasized the sanctity of the family, and never spoke of rights without speaking of duties. It was only during the Cold War and America's growing world hegemony that liberalism was refashioned into an American ideology focused so strongly on individual freedoms.
Today, we still can't seem to agree on liberalism's meaning. In the United States, a "liberal" is someone who advocates big government, while in France, big government is contrary to "liberalism." Political debates become befuddled because of semantic and conceptual confusion. The Lost History of Liberalism sets the record straight on a core tenet of today's political conversation and lays the foundations for a more constructive discussion about the future of liberal democracy.
The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry-and a term of derision-in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking readers from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism," revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning.
In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights. She shows that it was the French Revolution that gave birth to liberalism and Germans who transformed it. Only in the mid-twentieth century did the concept become widely known in the United States-and then, as now, its meaning was hotly debated. Liberals were originally moralists at heart. They believed in the power of religion to reform society, emphasized the sanctity of the family, and never spoke of rights without speaking of duties. It was only during the Cold War and America's growing world hegemony that liberalism was refashioned into an American ideology focused so strongly on individual freedoms.
Today, we still can't seem to agree on liberalism's meaning. In the United States, a "liberal" is someone who advocates big government, while in France, big government is contrary to "liberalism." Political debates become befuddled because of semantic and conceptual confusion. The Lost History of Liberalism sets the record straight on a core tenet of today's political conversation and lays the foundations for a more constructive discussion about the future of liberal democracy.
Related to The Lost History of Liberalism
Related audiobooks
A Revolution of the Mind: Radical Enlightenment and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascism: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Populism: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Propaganda Works Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Liberalism Works: How True Liberal Values Produce a Freer, More Equal, Prosperous World for All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The History of Political Thought: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why Marx Was Right: 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Liberalism in Dark Times: The Liberal Ethos in the Twentieth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secular Enlightenment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Communism: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Enlightenment: Reason, Tolerance, and Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essential Robert Nozick (Essential Scholars) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSocialism: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Understanding Socialism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Democracy: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Enlightenment that Failed: Ideas, Revolution, and Democratic Defeat, 1748-1830 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Say You Want a Revolution?: Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extremism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Politics: A Very Short Introduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anarchy, State, and Utopia: Second Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Political Ideologies For You
Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Democrat Party Hates America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me: Debunking the False Narratives Defining America’s School Curricula Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascism: A Warning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Recessional: The Death of Free Speech and the Cost of a Free Lunch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Will Own Nothing: Your War with a New Financial World Order and How to Fight Back Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emergent Strategy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who's Afraid of Gender? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Federalist Papers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Love of Country: Leave the Democrat Party Behind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Communist Manifesto (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shameless: Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Lost History of Liberalism
Rating: 4.32258064516129 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
31 ratings1 review
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Quite complete but a little bit mild, it pretends to be exhaustive but it's not very insightful.