"Why Liberalism Failed"by Patrick J. Deneen
Yale University Press (January 2018).
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.
Reviews and Related Articles
- Did Liberalism Fail? [Panel discussion]
- We Still Need Liberalism, by Christian Alejandro Gonzalez. National Review 06/22/18. "Patrick Deneen’s critique of liberalism exhibits an undue nostalgia for the past and ingratitude for the virtues of the present."
- An Autopsy: Why Liberalism Failed, by Daniel McCarthy. National Interest 06/14/18.
- In Defense of Full-Spectrum Liberalism, by Richard M. Reinsch. National Review 02/18/18.
- Why Liberalism’s Critics Fail, by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. Modern Age
- Against the Deformations of Liberalism, by David Corey. American Affairs
- Has Liberalism Failed?, by Patrick Lee Miller. Quillette 02/12/18.
- Liberalism's Failure - and It's Success, by David French. National Review 02/05/18: "As a critique of the godless libertinism of the modern West, Deneen’s book is devastating. As a critique of the American Founding, it’s far less convincing."
- Patrick Deneen Explains Why Liberalism Failed, by Jerry D. Salyer. Crisis Magazine 11/16/17.