1st Edition

The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty A view from Europe

By João Espada Copyright 2016
    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    Joao Carlos Espada's provocative survey of a group of key Anglo-American and European political thinkers argues that there is a distinctive, Anglo-American tradition of liberty that is one of the core pillars of the Free World. Giving a broad overview of the tradition through summaries of the careers and ideas of fourteen of its key thinkers, neglected despite having been tremendously influential in the tradition of liberty, the author engages with current set ideas about the meaning of 'liberal' and 'conservative' to offer an engaging, intellectual case for liberal democracy.

    The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty:

    A view from Europe

    João Carlos Espada

    Table of contents

    Introduction: Karl Popper, Winston Churchill and ‘The British Mystery’

    Part I | PERSONAL INFLUENCES

    1. Karl R. Popper: The open society and its enemies

    2. Ralf Dahrendorf: Liberty and civil society

    3. Raymond Plant: Social welfare without class warfare

    4. Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving Kristol: The moral imagination

    Part II | COLD WARRIORS

    5. Raymond Aron: The opium of the intellectuals

    6. Friedrich A. Hayek: The constitution of liberty

    7. Isaiah Berlin: Liberty and pluralism

    8. Michael J. Oakeshott: The conservative disposition

    9. Leo Strauss: Relativism and the crisis of modernity

    Part III | ORDERLY LIBERTY

    10. Edmund Burke: Liberty and duty

    11. James Madison vs. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Two views of self-government

    12. Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America

    Part IV | THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY

    13. Winston S. Churchill: The English-Speaking Peoples and the Free World

    Part V | POLITICS OF IMPERFECTION: THE ANGLO-AMERICAN

    TRADITION OF LIBERTY

    14. Limited and accountable Government

    15. Two kinds of rationalism

    16. Liberty as conversation

    Postscript ON BRITAIN AND THE EUROPEAN UNION: THE MISSING DEBATE

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    INDEX

    Biography

    João Carlos Espada is the director and founder of the Institute of Political Studies at the Catholic University of Portugal, where he is Professor of Political Studies. He earned his DPhil from the University of Oxford, and has taught at Brown, Stanford and Georgetown Universities in the US, and the College of Europe in Warsaw, Poland. He was political advisor to President Mário Soares (1986–1990) and President Cavaco Silva (2006–2011).

    "The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty is an enlightening book which is a very worthwhile read for those seeking an understanding of the peculiar English-speaking political culture that combines “a love of liberty, combined with sense of duty." - Bradtolppanen, A Blog on Winston Churchill