A cultural history of liberalism—one of our most widely used yet misunderstood terms—that reveals why the world urgently needs a more liberal mindset.

So-called liberalism has been twisted out of shape by both the left- and right-wing who incorrectly conceive of it in ideological terms, without understanding what a liberal philosophy really entails. In untangling these misconceptions, Wooldridge reveals why the world desperately needs to adopt a proper liberal mindset.

The cycles of history predict that without a return to liberalism, we face autocracy, fascism, and the societal stratification already visible in the world’s structures of opposition: populists versus elitists, the ultra-woke versus the steadfastly traditional, and capitalist-triumphalists against capitalist-catastrophists. A call to arms amidst American economic stagnation and the global censorship of information, Adrian’s new book guides us through liberalism’s intellectual, cultural, and political histories to remind us of the true liberal’s values: freedom through self-determinism, individual rights, healthy skepticism, thoughtful tolerance, and aversion to dogmatism.

Adrian diagnoses areas of necessary improvement for today’s passive liberals, who would do well to embody the flexible, moderate, and critical approaches of their Cold War predecessors. The West’s success against Communist totalitarianism came from recognizing the need for a strong military defense while using open communication to explain what the West was defending. This energy must be applied to our understanding of overseas regimes and of Western capitalism at home.

To avoid global catastrophe and uphold intellectual freedom and privacy, we must learn from the liberal past and look ahead, critiquing the structures we find ourselves in and those further afield