State of liberalism in America discussed in IAH Director McGowan’s new book

October 5, 2007

Chapel Hill, N.C. — In his new book, American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time (UNC Press/October 2007), John McGowan offers an assessment of the state of liberalism in contemporary America.

McGowan is The Ruel W. Tyson Jr. Distinguished Professor of the Humanities in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

He argues that Americans should think twice before jettisoning the liberalism that guided American politics from James Madison to the New Deal and the Great Society. In an engaging and informative discussion, McGowan offers a ringing endorsement of American liberalism's basic principles, values and commitments. He discusses what views liberalism embraces, what challenges and misunderstandings it faces, and why a healthy liberalism remains central to democracy.

"I believe that liberalism names certain values and commitments that are central to who we as Americans are and what we hope our country can be," McGowan says in a interview with UNC Press. "Recent events make it evident, in my view, that the death of liberalism would leave us worse off. I try to offer a convincing account of what liberalism is, an account that is true to what liberals believe at the same time that it convinces at least some of my readers that liberalism is the right set of political beliefs for Americans to cherish."

The denigration of liberalism by both the populist right and the academic left, McGowan argues, undermines the nation's long allegiance to its liberal heritage and institutions.

To answer the question of whether recent efforts to disconnect liberalism from democracy are desirable, McGowan examines five tenets of liberalism:

• A commitment to liberty and equality.
• Trust in a constitutionally established rule of law.
• A conviction that modern societies are irreducibly plural.
• A privileging of individual over communal existence.
• An insistence on the priority of persuasion through speech over other forms of compulsion in influencing action and opinion.

McGowan positions liberalism as an indispensable part of the nation's political history, and he cautions against losing a nuanced and accurate appreciation of liberalism through ignorance, misunderstanding, misrepresentation and inattention.

While modern liberalism has become an easy target for many on both sides of the aisle, McGowan argues that liberal democracy gives Americans their best chance of living at peace with both fellow citizens and other peoples around the world. Understanding the benefits and frustrations inherent in liberalism, McGowan says, will enable citizens to make decisions with a clearer sense of the stakes involved.

McGowan is the author of four other books and an editor of the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

Read a Q&A interview with McGowan about the book at http://www.ibiblio.org/uncp/media/mcgowan/mcgowanq&a.pdf.

The Institute for the Arts and Humanities (IAH), part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's College of Arts and Sciences, offers programs and activities that support UNC faculty at every stage of their careers. The IAH funds individual and collaborative research, showcases faculty work, develops faculty leaders and teachers, and facilitates the formation of collaborative, interdisciplinary communities that promote intellectual exchange. For more information, visit www.iah.unc.edu.