How to Be a Liberal: The Story of Freedom and the Fight for its Survival

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What is weirder is that we then embark upon 300 page march through liberalism with two empiricist philosophers, Locke and JS Mill, (who believed that knowledge could only come from sensory perception), at the for. And we defend nations that need states against any opposing nation-states: Kurds, Palestinians, and Tibetans, for example, against Turkey, Israel, and China—but we do this without denying the national rights of Turks, Israelis, and Chinese. The struggle has already been long, and there have been and will be compromises along the way—with opponents whose rights we have to respect.

But this audiobook argues there still is a liberalism out there, one which has been unreasonable trashed upon, one which the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater, but if we continue using it it's still the most useful tool we have so all of us can live together and not die together. The one thing which surprised me is that the first swear word didn’t appear until around the 70% mark.

As Rosselli argued, the competition will be continuous because, finally, “liberal” means that “socialism is not a static and abstract ideal that can one day be completely realized. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. So in a way liberalism's ideas of freedom of speech, creed, sexual orientation, nation, ideology, etc have been turned against itself. For centuries liberalism was a white man’s politics, which is addressed well as is the sexism and racism of the time in previous centuries.

Great for a non political science major to understand what concepts are in play at the moment and what the major underlying principles are of liberalism and its opposite. In his new book, How to Be a Liberal, Ian Dunt provides a clear and concise guide to liberalism for the modern age.Similarly, men and women who believe that the religion or irreligion of the others consigns them to eternal subordination (or damnation) and that they, the true believers, are morally obligated to rescue them from that fate—they are illiberal, and actively so. They didn’t leave for these reasons – political freedom, but economic freedom – that other pillar of liberal values. He argues that liberals need to learn to laugh at themselves and their opponents, and to avoid taking themselves too seriously.

In fact, I would argue that a sense of humor is essential for any liberal who wants to be effective in the world. Far more dangerous, however, are the zealots who aim to “force the end” and establish the messianic kingdom—or the Islamic Caliphate or Jesus Christ’s Holy Commonwealth or any other religious version of the end of secular history. So populist demagogues are wrong to claim that once they have won an election, they represent or embody “the will of the people,” and they can do anything they want. The power of the mob, public opinion, Rousseau’s will of the people if we remember led to the tyranny of the French Revolution.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. In this groundbreaking new book, Ian Dunt tells the story of liberalism, from its birth in the fight against absolute monarchy to the modern-day resistance against the new populism. While these chapters do nothing to justify the title of the book, the highly readable delineation of liberal thought culminating in the tension between Hayek and Keynes is a highly recommendable read for anyone interested in the history of ideas. But it is also something much more than that - it is a rallying cry for those who still believe in freedom and reason. Along this progress Dunt tries to develop the following thesis: Liberalism is the best means of protecting the individual and preventing the rise of collectivist Fascist and Stalinist regimes.