Eye-Opening Book on Humanism-Centered Liberalism

Even though this book was published over a year ago, it couldn't be more prescient to what we are going through now in the United States with overextension of executive branch power that is impacting lives across America as never before. The way they have treated the protesters in my home state of Oregon is not something that I ever would have imagined happening in the America of my youth. Autocracy and authoritarianism have replaced democracy, and that is something that the book speaks a fair amount to. In the introduction to the book, the author states, “... the liberal tradition is in still greater danger. It isn’t just an issue of the survival of ‘democracy’… It is the practice of *liberal* democracy, that magical marriage of free individuals and fair laws…”

The author grounds true liberalism in humanism, pluralism, and community—and rightly so. He delves into some history of liberal thought, and why liberalism threatens both the “true believers” on the right and on the left. I found his arguments to be cogent and well made. They resonated with me as I've always considered myself a liberal, but I never had a deeper understanding of what that meant that this book helped provide. Now I'm even happier to claim the term and its heritage. I found this to be a deeply thought-provoking and at times eye-opening book. Once the era of autocracy is beyond us, let's consider returning to the ideals that should be at the heart of a liberal democracy, “...not [just] *liberty* and *democracy* alone—vital though they are—but also *humanity* and *reform*, *tolerance* and *pluralism*, *self-realization* and *autonomy*, the vocabulary of passionate connection and self-chosen community.”