ISBN: HB: 9780300267235

Yale University Press

February 2023

184 pp.

21,5x13,9 cm

HB:
£20.00
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Struggle for a Decent Politics

On "Liberal" as an Adjective

A testament to what it means to be liberal by one of the most prominent political philosophers of our era.

There was a time when liberalism was an ism like any other, but that time, writes Michael Walzer, is gone. "Liberal" now conveys not a specific ideology but a moral stance, so the word is best conceived not as a noun but as an adjective – one is a "liberal democrat" or a "liberal nationalist". Walzer itemizes the characteristics described by "liberal" in an inventory of his own deepest political and moral commitments – among other things, to the principle of equality, to the rule of law, and to a pluralism that is both political and cultural. Unabashedly asserting that liberalism is a universal set of values ("it must be universal", he writes, "since it is under attack everywhere"), Walzer reminds us in this inspiring book why those values are worth fighting for.

About the author

Michael Walzer is emeritus professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. One of America's foremost political thinkers, he served as editor of the political journal Dissent for more than three decades. He lives in Princeton, NJ.