The Anatomy of Antiliberalism

“Holmes challenges the philosophical arguments of the high communitarians…and their intellectual forebears. By the time he is finished, the opposing camp has no survivors, ancient or modern. Anybody who feels drawn to the high communitarian cause owes it to himself (though not to society) to read Mr. Holmes’s book; everybody else should read it for pleasure.”—The Economist

“Holmes’ purpose is both to define the antiliberal traditon and to defend liberalism against it. The result is a book that sheds a good deal of light on the idea of liberty, mainly through the author’s vigorous and well-informed polemic… The book is rich in insights and ideas, all of which contribute to the overwhelming impression the reader is likely to derive from the book: that liberalism is not weak and one-sided but rather takes into account…a wide range of fundamental human needs and desires. The liberalism sketched by Holmes is not easily relativized in either radical or conservative terms.”—Glenn Tinder, The Atlantic

“Holmes is a brilliant polemicist and a sparkling writer… The chapters [he] devotes to dead and hard opponents of liberalism are only a warm-up for his zestfully nasty attacks on soft and living opponents of liberalism… Surely the ideas being discussed here should get people angry and are worth fighting about.”—Alan Wolfe, The New Republic

“This book is an act of political engagement, a defense in clear and bracing language of liberal ideas… This book is [Holmes’s] contribution to the present debate on an important question in American cultural life: whether liberal individualism in the United States has undermined moral commitment to community and the common good.”—Gilbert Allardyce, American Historical Review