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The Strange Death of American Liberalism
Contributor(s): Brands, H. W. (Author)
ISBN: 0300098243     ISBN-13: 9780300098242
Publisher: Yale University Press
OUR PRICE:   $30.69  
Product Type: Paperback
Published: September 2003
Qty:
Annotation: This compelling book focuses on the sea change in American politics from the 1960s to the present--from a time when liberals created bold government programs to solve important social problems, to contemporary distrust of government and rejection of liberal ideals. H. W. Brands delineates the intimate connection between the rise of postwar liberalism and the emergence of the Cold War. When the Cold War ended and Americans ceased to feel dependent on their government for protection, the fate of liberalism was sealed.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | History & Theory - General
- History
Dewey: 320.513
Physical Information: 0.57" H x 5.48" W x 8.24" (0.57 lbs) 218 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
In this provocative book, H. W. Brands confronts the vital question of why an ever-increasing number of Americans do not trust the federal government to improve their lives and to heal major social ills. How is it that government has come to be seen as the source of many of our problems, rather than the potential means of their solution? How has the word liberal become a term of abuse in American political discourse?

From the Revolution on, argues Brands, Americans have been chronically skeptical of their government. This book succinctly traces this skepticism, demonstrating that it is only during periods of war that Americans have set aside their distrust and looked to their government to defend them. The Cold War, Brands shows, created an extended--and historically anomalous--period of dependence, thereby allowing for the massive expansion of the American welfare state. Since the 1970s, and the devastating blow dealt to Cold War ideology by America's defeat in Vietnam, Americans have returned to their characteristic distrust of government. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Brands contends, the fate of American liberalism was sealed--and we continue to live with the consequences of its demise.