An Intellectual History of Lib

Original French title: Histoire intellectuelle du libéralisme: dix leçons.

Manent has written a concise and graceful essay on the history of liberal thought._ [This] book makes clear that even the most emphatically political liberalisms always involve more than opinions about forms of government. Liberalism, as he reconstructs it, is an elaborate edifice of beliefs, practices a...

Original French title: Histoire intellectuelle du libéralisme: dix leçons.

Manent has written a concise and graceful essay on the history of liberal thought._ [This] book makes clear that even the most emphatically political liberalisms always involve more than opinions about forms of government. Liberalism, as he reconstructs it, is an elaborate edifice of beliefs, practices and institutions. To neglect any one of these elements is, in Manent's account, to endanger the whole.

He has not offered us one of those academic tomes that seem more concerned with scoring points against rivals in the academy than with the material itself. Instead, Manent has, in 10 pointed "lessons," taken up the central questions animating some of the major works of modernity. . . . [Manent's work] is filled with remarkable insights into the nature of liberalism.