Will I love The Lost History of Liberalism?

Helena Rosenblatt correctly finds liberalism’s origins in the French Revolution, but she emphasizes its much longer prehistory, going back to the ancient Romans. She conveys a wide range of ideas in the liberal tradition of political thought and practice and especially draws attention to the values of generosity, civic-mindedness, and love of freedom.

Rosenblatt does not stint from describing the less attractive sides of some liberal thinkers and theories, especially in Europe during the nineteenth century. This is a beautifully written work of scholarship showing mastery of historical detail.

Today, we tend to think of liberalism as a political ideology concerned with politics, law, free markets, and the like.

Rosenblatt’s wonderful book shows us how far—and how poor and anemic—that vision of liberalism is compared to that of its founders in the 19th century. Old-school liberals, including Alexis de Tocqueville, J.S. Mill, Germaine de Staël, and Benjamin Constant, pursued high-minded ethical ideals of what it means to live freely and generously in our modern world. We would do well to remember them.

The concept of human rights will seem to many at first sight a powerful, positive, and relatively uncontroversial idea. However, the concept is both historically and philosophically bound up with the political theory of liberalism which is very controversial. Many people praise or condemn liberalism without a clear idea of what it is, how it developed historically, or its diverse forms. Helena Rosenblatt’s valuable history tells the story of liberalism from ancient times to the present, showing us the various forms it can take and has taken.

Contrary to widely held beliefs liberalism has been concerned not only with individual… show more.