
The Lost History of Liberalism
From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century
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Narrated by:
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Xe Sands
About this listen
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 listeners 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 reveals that it was the French Revolution that gave birth to liberalism and Germans who transformed it. Only in the mid-20th 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.
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The Age of Revolution
- 1789-1848
- By: Eric Hobsbawm
- Narrated by: Hugh Kermode
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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This magisterial volume follows the death of ancient traditions, the triumph of new classes, and the emergence of new technologies, sciences, and ideologies, with vast intellectual daring and aphoristic elegance. Part of Eric Hobsbawm's epic four-volume history of the modern world, along with The Age of Capitalism, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes.
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Brilliant Materialist Interpretation
- By Earth Lover on 05-16-20
By: Eric Hobsbawm
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Anti-Pluralism
- The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy
- By: William A. Galston
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The Great Recession, institutional dysfunction, a growing divide between urban and rural prospects, and failed efforts to effectively address immigration have paved the way for a populist backlash that disrupts the postwar bargain between political elites and citizens. Whether today's populism represents a corrective to unfair and obsolete policies or a threat to liberal democracy remains up for debate. To respond to today's crisis, good leaders must strive for inclusive economic growth while addressing social and cultural issues, including demographic anxiety, with frank attention.
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Informative, but a bit shallow
- By JayJay on 07-14-18
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Greek Mythology Explained
- A Deeper Look at Classical Greek Lore and Myth
- By: Marios Christou, David Ramenah
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating take on classical Greek stories: Discover six classic Greek myths in this exciting retelling that paints both famous and lesser known characters in a whole new light. Follow the likes of Odysseus, Lamia, Bellerophon, Icarus, Medusa, and Artemis as their fates are revealed through bloody trials, gut-wrenching betrayals, sinister motives, and broken hearts.
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Adults only
- By Morgen La on 01-21-22
By: Marios Christou, and others
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A World After Liberalism
- Philosophers of the Radical Right
- By: Matthew Rose
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In this eye-opening book, Matthew Rose introduces us to one of the most controversial intellectual movements of the 20th century, the "radical right", and discusses its adherents' different attempts to imagine political societies after the death or decline of liberalism. Questioning democracy's most basic norms and practices, these critics rejected ideas about human equality, minority rights, religious toleration, and cultural pluralism not out of implicit biases, but out of explicit principle.
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Essential Reading for understanding the Far Right
- By BWA on 08-18-21
By: Matthew Rose
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Fundamentalism and American Culture
- 2nd Edition
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Fundamentalism and American Culture has long been considered a classic in religious history, and to this day remains unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the full history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements.
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objectivity
- By Caleb on 07-16-24
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The Constitution of Liberty
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Ronald Hamowy - Edited by, F. A. Hayek
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Constitution of Liberty is considered Hayek's classic statement on the ideals of freedom and liberty, ideals that he believes have guided - and must continue to guide - the growth of Western civilization. Here, Hayek defends the principles of a free society, casting a skeptical eye on the growth of the welfare state and examining the challenges to freedom posed by an ever-expanding government.
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very detailed and important
- By Big Kyle 570 on 06-17-20
By: Ronald Hamowy - Edited by, and others
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Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
- By: Richard Hofstadter
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This book throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society.
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Fifty years later, still valid today
- By David Evan Glasser on 11-13-18
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Ancient Christianities
- The First Five Hundred Years
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.
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Among the best
- By Jacob Kilgore on 04-17-25
By: Paula Fredriksen
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Why Liberalism Failed
- By: Patrick J. Deneen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Of the three dominant ideologies of the 20th 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.
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a fine idea stuffed in a dead horse and beat
- By David on 09-26-18
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The Radicalism of the American Revolution
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 19 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Grand in scope, rigorous in its arguments, and elegantly synthesizing 30 years of scholarship, Gordon S. Wood's Pulitzer Prize–winning book analyzes the social, political, and economic consequences of 1776. In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood depicts not just a break with England, but the rejection of an entire way of life: of a society with feudal dependencies, a politics of patronage, and a world view in which people were divided between the nobility and "the Herd."
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Changed the Way I Think
- By Cynthia on 01-04-14
By: Gordon S. Wood
It's s a shame though, that the audio volume is not properly adjusted, which makes it impossible to listen to with phone in even just a little noise. Just turn up the volume god damn it, is it so hard!?
good book, but bad audio
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I enjoyed this history of Liberalism
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Great history, much needed
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Narrator made the history of liberalism sexy
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Educative and informative
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horrible mispronunciations
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In the quest to shine a light on the continental history of liberalism however, the author inevitably falls prey to the same temptation as she argues plagues so much of the contemporary history of liberalism - to belittle or ignore notable works of authors and political thinkers outside of the preferred school or region. In some parts, the book verges in on the line of downright revisionism.
The author also portrays a typical straw-man of contemporary liberalism as an atomistic ideology hellbent on destroying social cooperation and morals, not unlike the ones she criticize for being unfair in historical portrayals of liberals.
The dichotomy between enforcing rights/ methodological individualism and a moral, pluralistic and empathic liberalism is obviously faulty and the book names more than a few thinkers who are known for this very idea, but whose ideas about this are outright ignored. (E.g. Smith, Mill, Berlin, Rawls and even Hayek)
In sum the book puts a spotlight on a number of interesting uses and characteristics of liberalism throughout western history, but the book is also severely flawed and in some sense self-defeating in itself being an example of a politicized history, and unjust critique of liberalism.
Interesting but in the end self-defeating
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