How to Be a Liberal: The Story of Freedom and the Fight for its Survival

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As the book progresses we are immersed in some of the core tensions of liberalism and its various branches. From the English civil war to modernity, Dunt delivers a liberal narrative that is informative yet accessible.

At times I've stepped away from the "liberal" label, simply because I don't want to be associated with the identity politics "liberal" I see today. If by this 'other form' he is referring to an organisation of politics which includes democratic institutions and promotes policies that are inclusive, conscientiously egalitarian, and socially considerate, then he is essentially arguing for social democracy. Liberals” are still an identifiable group, and I assume that readers of Dissent are members of the group. If you consider yourself a liberal of the centre left or the right, you'll probably end up reassured that you're on the right side, but you'll have a much better idea why that is. In fact, he becomes by turns historian, philosopher, economist and sociologist as he charts the development of liberalism as a political ethos.Was it right" he asks, "to exempt Sikhs, who wear a turban, from legislation requiring the wearing of motorcycle helmets?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given modern conditions, Dunt's greatest enemies are populists and nationalists who generally emanate from the political right. Liberal socialists will be skeptical even about the creeds to which they are committed; a touch of irony is inherent in all liberal commitments.

The constraints imposed by the adjective “liberal” are understood in exactly this way by the Italian socialist Carlo Rosselli, one of the leaders of the anti-fascist resistance in the 1920s and 1930s and the author of Liberal Socialism, which is one of my texts for this article. Political journalist Ian Dunt has wrriten an urgent book for our times that is a must-read for everyone seeking to understand how western politics got to where it is today. In his new book, How to Be a Liberal, Ian Dunt provides a clear and concise guide to liberalism for the modern age. Drawing on his years of experience as a journalist and political commentator, Dunt argues that liberalism is not just a set of abstract principles, but a practical guide to living a good and meaningful life.

Superb narrative sweep of liberal history and its juxtaposition with the nationalist tendencies that are seeping into everyday discourse. For him, as for the democrats he follows, the adjective “liberal” is not only a constraining but also a pluralizing force: it guarantees the existence of “various parties” (which means more than one) and sustains for each the possibility of success. You won’t be able to put it down and you might just come away feeling slightly better equipped to deal with the messy world we face right now.That was an example of left populism, but it is comparable to President Trump’s attack on the courts—populism from the right. It is an interesting question whether there are groups, parties, ideologies, identities that can’t be modified by the adjective “liberal. I can be, all at once, a Jew, a socialist, an academic political theorist, a New Yorker, a husband and father (and grandfather), and an active, but part-time, citizen of the American republic. It was wonderful and refreshing to read about people from marginalised communities and understand how they shaped liberalism too. It shows how the movement towards fairness, equality and inclusion has progressed (with some hiccups) though the ages and across the world.

These are among the most important political battles of our time, and the adjective “liberal” is our most important weapon. And then we must accommodate the activities, and sometimes the refusals to act, that those beliefs produce. Non-liberals argue that traditional Liberalism is the centre ground of political thinking, it is anodyne and it’s time has passed. There is another demand of liberal nationalism that is easier to make: imperial nation-states that have expanded at the expense of other nations must withdraw from those others and contract their size. To clarify, this book is by no means a comprehensive history, nor does the book contain sources apart from the author citing the experts he worked with in the Afterword.It's almost heartbreaking hearing some of the story of liberalism read in such a normal, steady voice. But much of this is avoidable by a simple principle:
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. They are both deeply interested in the reality of how people think, whether it is patriotism or group belonging. Even Clinton and Blair, supposedly more left-leaning, did little to disturb the laissez-faire economic consensus. It would allow citizens to avoid (some) meetings for the sake of their private happiness—to watch a baseball game, go to the movies, play with the kids, work in the garden, make love, or just sit with friends and talk.