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Liberalism: The Life of an Idea, by Edmund Fawcett; pp. xvi + 468. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014, $35.00, $24.95 paper.
Edmund Fawcett's Liberalism: The Life of an Idea makes a major contribution to our understanding of a concept that, for two centuries, has been central to Western political and cultural thought and practice. The result of enormously wide-ranging scholarship, the book nevertheless has a narrative vibrancy and lack of jargon that make it very easy to read. It is organized into a substantial introduction, which lays out its broad approach, followed by four chronological parts: "The Confidence of Ybuth (1830-1880)," "Liberalism in Maturity and the Struggle with Democracy (1880-1945)," "Second Chance and Success (1945-1989)," and "After 1989." The introduction, part one, and much of part two are especially valuable for Victorianists. Nevertheless, the whole of the book can be read for insights that usefully add to recent work on the relations between nineteenth-century thought and the contemporary world, especially those addressing the ongoing impact of neoliberalism in Western polities.
The main value of the book as a contribution to our understanding of liberalism lies in its breadth and its approach. It is broad not only historically, but also geographically. Each part (and the thematic chapters within each part) takes up a series of pertinent and related issues across four nation-states: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States. It does this through a focus on individual thinkers or political figures in each of the countries. Thus, for example, chapter 3, "Liberalism in Practice: Four Exemplary Politicians," has sections on Abraham Lincoln, Édouard René de Laboulaye, Eugen Richter, and William Gladstone. Using individuals to represent specific sets of concerns in distinct national...