Book Review: Why Liberalism Failed
This book opened my eyes with its spot on diagnosis of the cause of many of our societal ills.
Reviewed by: Steven McMullen, Hope College, Faith & Economics, Issue 73, Spring 2019
Deneen, Patrick J. Why Liberalism Failed. Edited by Patrick J. Deneen, Yale University Press, 2018. 255 pages.
Few academic books about political theory have as immediate an impact on the political and academic world as did Patrick Deneen’s Why Liberalism Failed. Published in 2018 (Paperback in 2019), the book was picked up by some key figures, including President Barak Obama, which gave it immediate visibility. Added to this was the sense among the intelligentsia after the 2016 election that American democracy was facing a crisis. The setting was ripe for a short, provocative book to skyrocket to fame. Given the thesis and title, however, one might not have expected this book to be a bestseller. The “liberalism” that is the focus of the book refers to liberalism in the old sense – the political and economic philosophy that puts individuals and rights at the center of political theory.
Loosely, the author’s topic is democratic capitalism. It may be that the author picked the perfect historical moment to tell Americans why it seemed like everything was falling apart around them. Deneen’s thesis is that our political and economic system, which he calls a grand and materially successful 250-year experiment, is facing a crisis of its own making….Read more.
