This book is a profoundly moving and analytically incisive attempt to shift the terms of discussion in American politics. It speaks to the intellectual and political weaknesses within the liberal tradition that have put the United States at the mercy of libertarian, authoritarian populist, nakedly racist, and traditionalist elitist versions of the right-wing; and it seeks to identify resources that can move the left away from the stunned intellectual incoherence with which it has met the death of Bolshevism. In Ira ...
Read More
This book is a profoundly moving and analytically incisive attempt to shift the terms of discussion in American politics. It speaks to the intellectual and political weaknesses within the liberal tradition that have put the United States at the mercy of libertarian, authoritarian populist, nakedly racist, and traditionalist elitist versions of the right-wing; and it seeks to identify resources that can move the left away from the stunned intellectual incoherence with which it has met the death of Bolshevism. In Ira Katznelson's view, Americans are squandering a tremendous ethical and political opportunity to redefine and reorient the liberal tradition. In an opening essay and two remarkable letters addressed to Adam Michnik, who is arguably East Europe's emblematic democratic intellectual, Katznelson seeks to recover this possibility. By examining issues that once occupied Michnik's fellow dissidents in the Warsaw group known as the Crooked Circle, Katznelson brings a fresh realism to old ideals and posits a liberalism that "stares hard" at cruelty, suffering, coercion, and tyrannical abuses of state power. Like the members of Michnik's club, he recognises that the circumference of liberalism's circle never runs smooth and that tolerance requires extremely difficult judgments. Katznelson's first letter explores how the virtues of socialism, including its moral stand on social justice, can be related to liberalism while overcoming debilitating aspects of the socialist inheritance. The second asks whether liberalism can recognise, appreciate, and manage human difference. Situated in the lineage of efforts by Richard Hofstadter, C. Wright Mills, and Lionel Trilling to "thicken" liberalism, these letters also draw on personal experience in the radical politics of the 1960's and in the dissident culture of East and Central Europe in the years immediately preceding communism's demise. "Liberalism's Crooked Circle" could help foster a substantive debate in the American elections of 1996 and determine the contents of that desperately needed discussion.
Read Less
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle: Letters to Adam Michnik to cart. $10.00, very good condition, Sold by Small World Books rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Rochester, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. Book. 8vo-over 7¾-9¾" tall. Full number line. Boards clean and solid, minor shelf wear. Binding firm. Contents clean and bright, unmarked. DJ not clipped, clean and whole with a touch of shelf wear, scuffing.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle: Letters to Adam Michnik to cart. $12.77, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle to cart. $12.90, good condition, Sold by Midtown Scholar Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Harrisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle to cart. $15.50, very good condition, Sold by Powell's Books Chicago rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle to cart. $17.00, very good condition, Sold by BookHouse On-Line rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Minneapolis, MN, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. xx, 192pp. Vg hardcover: binding tight and sturdy, text unmarked. Dark blue cloth boards, crisp and square. DJ unclipped, very light wear. From a personal collection (NOT ex-lib). Due to the size/weight of this book extra charges may apply for international shipping. Ships from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle to cart. $39.53, new condition, Sold by Media Smart rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hawthorne, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle to cart. $45.24, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle to cart. $88.23, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
Add this copy of Liberalism's Crooked Circle to cart. $120.07, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Princeton University Press.
