Making Liberalism New: American Intellectuals, Modern Literature, and the Rewriting of a Political Tradition

Description

A revisionist history of American liberalism, from the Great Depression to the Cold War. In Making Liberalism New, Ian Afflerbach traces the rise, revision, and fall of a modern liberalism in the United States, establishing this intellectual culture as distinct from classical predecessors as well as the neoliberalism that came to power by century's end. Drawing on a diverse archive that includes political philosophy, legal texts, studies of moral psychology, government propaganda, and presidential campaign materials, Afflerbach also delves into works by Tess Slesinger, Richard Wright, James Agee, John Dewey, Lionel Trilling, and Vladimir Nabokov. Throughout the book, he shows how a reciprocal pattern of influence between modernist literature and liberal intellectuals helped drive the remarkable writing and rewriting of this keyword in American political life. From the 1930s into the 1960s, Afflerbach writes, modern American fiction exposed and interrogated central concerns in liberal culture, such as corporate ownership, reproductive rights, color-blind law, the tragic limits of social documentary, and the dangerous allure of a heroic style in political leaders. In response, liberal intellectuals borrowed key values from modernist culture―irony, tragedy, style―to reimagine the meaning and ambitions of American liberalism. Drawing together political theory and literary history, Making Liberalism New argues that the rise of American liberal culture helped direct the priorities of modern literature. At the same time, it explains how the ironies of narrative form offer an ideal medium for readers to examine conceptual problems in liberal thought. These problems―from the abortion debate to the scope of executive power―remain an indelible feature of American politics. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction What We Talk About When We Talk About Liberalism Modern Literature and Liberal Politics The Discursive Origins of American Liberalism Making Liberalism New I A Liberal Modernism 1. Liberalism Incorporated: Intellectuals, Abortion, and the Critique of Possessive Individualism Tess Slesinger’s Intellectuals and the Problems of Possession Wombs or Women? Modernism’s Party Politics After the Party 2. Racial Liberalism: Native Son and the Problem of “Color-Blind” Law Social Psychology and the American Dilemma Color-Blind Justice Individualism and Reactionary Color Blindness Things Not Seen II A Modern Liberalism 3. The Inward Turn: Tragedy, Documentary, and the Making of the Postwar Liberal Imagination Let Us Not Praise Liberal Documentary Lionel Trilling and the Tragic Liberal Imagination Taking Tragedy to the White House Arthur Miller and the Ends of Tragedy 4. Ending in Style: JFK, Nabokov, and the Apotheosis of a Liberal Aesthetic Totalitarianism and the Democratic Character Intellectual Style in an Age of Abundance Lolita and the Liberal Ironist “Liberal Totalitarianism” and the Problem of the Presidency Conclusion: What’s Left of Liberalism? (or What’s So New about Neoliberalism?) Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y