Return of the "L" Word
Subtitle: A Liberal Vision for the New Century
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: March 21, 2005
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9780691123035
Subjects: Liberalism & centre democratic ideologies; Politics/International Relations; Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism; History; United States; Political Science; Politics / Current Events; Politics - Current Events; Political Process - Political Parties; Government - U.S. Government; Economics; Political Philosophy; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism; Political Science and International Relations; Sociology; Sociology - General; History & Theory - General; 20th century; 21st century; Liberalism
First sentence: Somehow, during the last quarter of the twentieth century in the United States, conservatives stole the high ground of public debate and were able to depict liberalism as tantamount to a sin, a diabolical philosophy whose unchecked expression during the 1960s led the country to the verge of ruin.
Description: "Somewhere in the 1970s liberals in the United States lost their way. After successes like the New Deal, they became arrogant. So argues Douglas Massey in Return of the "L" Word. Faced with the difficult politics of race and class, liberals used the heavy hand of government to impose policies on a resentful public. Conservatives capitalized on this with a staunch ideology of free markets, limited government, and conservative social values. The time is ripe for a liberal realignment, declares Massey, but what has been lacking is a consistent liberal ideology that explains to voters, in simple terms, government's vital role in producing a healthier, more financially equitable, less divided society." "This book supplies that ideology. Massey begins his manifesto by laying out the liberals' mistakes over the past twenty years. Drawing on insights from the expanding field of economic sociology, he then sets forth a clear set of liberal principles to explain how markets work in society, principles he applies to articulate salable liberal policies." "After outlining a new liberal political philosophy, Massey traces liberalism's opposition and says plainly: liberals should have no illusions about the competition's resolve and skill. He closes with a practical approach to liberal coalition-building in America. The political economy conservatives have constructed in recent decades has benefited 20 percent of the people. Liberal success requires a return to material rather than symbolic politics, showing most Americans why it is in their economic as well as moral interest to support the liberal cause."--Jacket.