An Intelligent Person's Guide to Liberalism

by Conrad Russell

Liberalism, like democracy, is a hurrah-word. People as widely apart as Roy Jenkins and Lord Harris, and Nobel Prize winners Milton Friedmann and J.K. Galbraith, all claim to be liberals. But who are really the succesors to that great liberal Locke, Bentham and Mill? In this polemical book, Lord Russell has set for himself the task of defining the true touchstone of that great British institution, liberal philosophy. Lucidly analyzing how it worked in the past, he makes a passionate plea for its continued importance in the modern world. Liberalism couldn't be further removed from colourless pluralism or watered-down socialism. Its belief in individual autonomy is a vital political philosophy that we can only ignore at our peril.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, 5th Earl of Russell, was an English historian of early Stuart Britain and a politician. His parents were the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell and his third wife Patricia Russell. He was also a great-grandson of the 19th-century British Whig Prime Minister Lord John Russell.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a little more from this book. The author (now deceased) was a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. As a result I feel a better title for the book might have been 'An Intelligent Person's Guide to the Liberal Democrats'.

Don't get me wrong; the book does give a very very basic overview of Liberalism but soon drowns the reader in a mish-mash of part history lesson part needless rhetoric. The author doesn't mention any Liberalism outside of the UK which was disappointed and doesn't mention any of the various branches of Liberalism (except for green)

I am hoping to be able to find something better than this to learn about grassroots Liberalism.