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August 2022

Foreign Affairs Recommends: Books on the Crisis in Liberalism


Ten books on the successes and travails of liberalism, from its origins to its murky future.

Book cover for Liberalism in Dark Times: The Liberal Ethos in the Twentieth Century

Liberalism in Dark Times: The Liberal Ethos in the Twentieth Century

By Joshua L. Cherniss

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

Cherniss explores the ideas of liberal thinkers from the World War II and Cold War eras. Read More
Book cover for What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present, and Promise of a Noble Idea

What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present, and Promise of a Noble Idea

By James Traub

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

Traub turns to history and theory to reclaim liberalism’s principles.

Read More
Book cover for A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism

A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism

By Adam Gopnik

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

In this spirited manifesto, Gopnik paints a sweeping portrait of modern liberalism’s founding principles and accomplishments.

Read More
Book cover for Age of Anger: A History of the Present

Age of Anger: A History of the Present

By Pankaj Mishra

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

What explains today’s global disorder, when liberalism is under assault by violent extremism, populist nationalism, xenophobia, religious tribalism, and antiglobalization? In this ambitious portrait of the current moment, Mishra sees all these problems as rooted in liberalism itself. Read More
Book cover for Reordering the World: Essays on Liberalism and Empire

Reordering the World: Essays on Liberalism and Empire

By Duncan Bell

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

The liberal tradition has long had a deeply fraught relationship with imperialism. In the late nineteenth century, British liberals embraced free trade, individual liberty, and the rule of law, while also defending the United Kingdom’s empire. In recent decades, liberal internationalist ideas have found their way into arguments in favor of humanitarian intervention, preemptive war, and campaigns to spread democracy—all of which critics often deride as imperialism in new guises.

Read More
Book cover for The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism

The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism

By Fritz Bartel

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

Bartel’s powerful new interpretation of the Cold War argues that the struggle between democracy and communism was fundamentally a contest over which system of government could best harness industrial modernity to improve the lives of its people. Read More
Book cover for The Wrecking of the Liberal World Order

The Wrecking of the Liberal World Order

By Vittorio Emanuele Parsi. Translated by Malvina Parsi.

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

Parsi, one of Italy’s leading scholars of international relations, delivers a sweeping account of the rise and decline of the liberal world order. Read More
Book cover for Postliberal Politics: The Coming Era of Renewal

Postliberal Politics: The Coming Era of Renewal

By Adrian Pabst

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

Pabst offers a searing indictment of pandemic-era liberal capitalist societies. Read More
Book cover for A World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right

A World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right

By Matthew Rose

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

In this volume, Rose examines the intellectual foundations of the far right through profiles of historical thinkers. Read More
Book cover for The Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy

The Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy

By Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes

Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry

Krastev and Holmes argue that the retreat from liberal democracy in eastern Europe and elsewhere is rooted in liberalism’s post-1989 global triumph.

Read More

Recommended Book Collections

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, Russia, September 2018

Foreign Affairs Recommends: Books on Modern Authoritarianism

Eight books that help explain the mechanisms of authoritarian rule

Foreign Affairs Recommends: Books on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Seven books that help trace the roots of the war in Gaza

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