Thousand small sanities : the moral adventure of liberalism
(Book)

"Everywhere we look, throughout Europe as much as in America, patriotism is being replaced with nationalism, pluralism by tribalism, impersonal injustices by the tyrannical whim of autocrats. In short, the liberal tradition is in danger. It isn't just an issue of the survival of 'democracy' -- after all, Iran and Russia are ostensibly democratic. What is imperiled is the practice of liberal democracy, with its underpinnings in the beliefs of free individuals and fair laws. A THOUSAND SMALL SANITIES is New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik's liberal credo, the product of a long career of thinking and writing about liberalism -- about philosophers, novelists, and artists; about the ethos of the café and the public square; about the dinner table and soccer's World Cup. In this bracingly original book, Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor term for a set of rights. Drawing on history, philosophy, art, and literature, Gopnik reveals liberalism as the ongoing search for radical change by humane measures -- and as one of the great moral adventures in human history. From Montaigne to Middlemarch to the civil right movement and beyond, with his signature wit and warmth, Gopnik explores the triumphs of liberalism over the last 500 years. Taking seriously its failures as well as counterarguments from both right and left., he shows liberals must wrestle with these critiques if they hope to defeat threats they now face." -- dust jacket flap.