222 μ¢¤³£ ¬μμ¬formal doctrine, a set o abstract prin-
ciples, or a group o ¿xed political
institutions, but as a way o life. Across
the centuries, liberal thought has been
united by “the liberal temperament,” an
embrace o pluralism and reform and a
skepticism o utopias. Liberalism’s great
project, as Gopnik eloquently argues, is
the unending struggle to build a society
with both liberty and equality at its core.Democratic Capitalism at the Crossroads:
Technological Change and the Future of
Politics
BY CARLES BOIX. Princeton
University Press, 2019, 272 pp.Beginning in the 1980s, Boix argues,
revolutions in communications and the
globalization o trade and production
undermined the old class compromises at
the heart o Western liberal democracy.
Highly educated professionals have seen
their incomes soar, and previously
well-paid manufacturing workers, the old
backbone o the middle class, are now
struggling to survive. Boix places this
crisis in perspective, illuminating the
fraught relationship among technology,
capitalism, and democracy over the last
two centuries. The book focuses on
watershed moments, starting with the
birth o the Industrial Revolution in
cities such as Manchester, where low
factory wages, poor living conditions forRecent Books
Political and Legal
G.John Ikenberry
A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral
Adventure of Liberalism
BY ADAM GOPNIK. Basic Books, 2019,
272 pp.I
n this spirited manifesto, Gopnik
paints a sweeping portrait o modern
liberalism’s founding principles and
accomplishments and makes the case for
the theory’s continued relevance in
today’s struggle to build decent and
inclusive societies. Gopnik traces
liberalism’s origins to the Enlighten-
ment and the early modern humanistic
tradition. It was rooted in a belief—
articulated by thinkers such as David
Hume and Adam Smith—in the inher-
ent sociability o people and the human
capacity for mutual respect. Liberal
society is grounded not in blood and
soil, nor in traditional authority, but
rather in an idea o “shared choice,” a
vision o a political community held
together by crosscutting values: liberty,
equality, and toleration. For Gopnik,
liberalism is best understood not as aROBERT LEGVOLD has retired as reviewer o the section on eastern Europe and the
former Soviet republics, and we thank him for his outstanding contributions. We are
fortunate to have as his successor MARIA LIPMAN, the editor o Point & Counterpoint,
an online journal published by the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian
Studies at George Washington University, and a former columnist for The Washington
Post and the website o The New Yorker.Return to Table of Contents