In modern political history, few terms have had quite so slippery a career as “liberalism.” It first appeared in early 19th-century Spain as a term of abuse: a system “founded upon ignorant, absurd, anti-social, anti-monarchic, anti-Catholic” ideas, as one early adopter put it. Soon enough, self-proclaimed liberals claimed it as their own, but with amazingly little agreement as to its meaning. At the turn of the 20th century, the English economist John Hobson defined it as “practicable socialism,” while across the channel, France's Liberal Republican Union insisted that “true liberalism” depended on a close alliance between church and state and a rejection of progressive social measures, such as the income tax.
Things have become no clearer in the present day. In Western Europe, “liberalism” generally designates what Americans view as free-market conservatism. In the United States, it has come to mean something similar to Western European–style social democracy. Even as many Democrats abandon the term, Republicans have done their best to again make it one of abuse. “What we call liberalism,” Jonah Goldberg writes in his book Liberal Fascism, “is in fact a descendant and manifestation of fascism.” In The Lost History of Liberalism, an excellent recent survey of the term, the historian Helena Rosenblatt states forthrightly that “we are muddled about what we mean by [it].”
Can liberalism be rescued from this lexical and political morass? Should it be? Adam Gopnik has no doubts on that score. In A Thousand Small Sanities, he sets out to offer both a definition of liberalism and a heartfelt defense of it. Gopnik does so in what has by now become his trademark style, honed over 30 years as a staff writer for The New Yorker: engaging, conversational prose; a wry sense of humor; a seasoned eye for the telling anecdote; and a great deal of learning, lightly worn. The book is nothing if not enjoyable to read, and it amply reflects the author's exquisitely good intentions. Despite the pleasures of the prose, A Thousand Small Sanities is a perfect illustration of the cul-de-sac in which mainstream American liberalism now finds itself. The book is worth reading, above all, because it exemplifies a seductive, well-meaning, but oddly apolitical outlook and language that still may have the power to tempt Democrats away from the progressive policies they need to embrace in 2020.
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