Synopses & Reviews
Many of the successful campaigns for national liberation in the years following World War II were initially based on democratic and secular ideals. Once established, however, the newly independent nations had to deal with entirely unexpected religious fierceness. Michael Walzer, one of America’s foremost political thinkers, examines this perplexing trend by studying India, Israel, and Algeria, three nations whose founding principles and institutions have been sharply attacked by three completely different groups of religious revivalists: Hindu militants, ultra-Orthodox Jews and messianic Zionists, and Islamic radicals. In his provocative, well-reasoned discussion, Walzer asks, Why have these secular democratic movements been unable to reproduce their political culture beyond one or two generations? In a postscript, he compares the difficulties of contemporary secularism to the successful establishment of secular politics in the early American republic—thereby making an argument for American exceptionalism but gravely noting that we may be less exceptional today.
Review
“Manifestly important. . . . Elegant and lucid. The issues [are] of wide significance and addressed with precision . . . and admirable clarity.”—Allan Silver, Columbia University
Review
"Nationalism remains the most potent ideological force in modern politics. This study of the fate of nationalism in Israel, India, and Algeria shows how easily plans for liberation have flip-flopped into their opposite. At a time when our politics continually vacillates between boredom and frivolity, Michael Walzer has reminded us of what it truly important."—Steven B. Smith, Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science, Yale University
Review
"In this remarkably innovative book Michael Walzer advances the bold thesis that national liberation movements, drunk on secular ambitions, ignored traditional religious and ethnic commitments at great cost. Decades after the liberation struggles were won, those powerful forces have come back to haunt them. This is Walzer at his incisive best."—Ian Shapiro, author of The Real World of Democratic Theory
Review
“With rare gifts of moral sensibility, eloquence, and humility, Michael Walzer turns three haunting stories of historical loss into stories of paradox and hope. This book is a brilliant call for commitment to the reproduction of secular democracy, and Walzer points a way forward.”—Nancy L. Rosenblum, author of
On the Side of the Angels: An Appreciation of Parties and Partisanship
Review
“Walzer traces, with admirable lucidity, the social and cultural reasons that liberation movements in Algeria, India, and Israel ended up betraying the secular democratic hopes that they originally inspired. His rich, insightful account makes it clear why he is often acclaimed as America’s leading political thinker.”—Richard Wolin, author of The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s
Review
"Michael Walzer is a titan among political philosophers, and The Paradox of Liberation is one of his greatest books—incisive, original, humane, bold, nuanced, timely, and relentlessly and beautifully lucid.”—Paul Berman, author of Terror and Liberalism and Flight of the Intellectuals
Review
“Why do secular liberation movements so often give rise to quasi-religious reactionary movements, and is there any way in which this problematic dynamic might be avoided? Discussing Israel, India, Algeria, and the United States, Michael Walzer, America's leading political theorist, tackles this urgent question with clarity and deep insight.”—Martha C. Nussbaum, The University of Chicago
Review
“As vital, productive, and intellectually alive as ever . . . [with] The Paradox of Liberation, Walzer has made a major contribution.”—Michael Ignatieff, New York Review of Books
Review
“Fascinating . . . Walzer can rightly be called America’s greatest living political philosopher . . . A cause for celebration.”—Alan Wolfe, Chronicle of Higher Education
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“One of the many virtues of Walzer’s subtlety is that he helps us understand that, while the ideologies of today’s fundamentalists and ultra-orthodox are rooted in ancient or medieval ideas, these movements are, in a peculiar way, thoroughly modern.”—E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
Review
“[A] searching meditation on the trajectory of nationalism and politics”—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs
Synopsis
What kinds of political arrangements enable people from different national, racial, religious, or ethnic groups to live together in peace? In this book one of the most influential political theorists of our time discusses the politics of toleration. Michael Walzer examines five "regimes of toleration"--from multinational empires to immigrant societies--and describes the strengths and weaknesses of each regime, as well as the varying forms of toleration and exclusion each fosters. Walzer shows how power, class, and gender interact with religion, race, and ethnicity in the different regimes and discusses how toleration works--and how it should work--in multicultural societies like the United States.
Walzer offers an eloquent defense of toleration, group differences, and pluralism, moving quickly from theory to practical issues, concrete examples, and hard questions. His concluding argument is focused on the contemporary United States and represents an effort to join and advance the debates about "culture war," the "politics of difference," and the "disuniting of America." Although he takes a grim view of contemporary politics, he is optimistic about the possibility of coexistence: cultural pluralism and a common citizenship can go together, he suggests, in a strong and egalitarian democracy.
Synopsis
A thought-provoking reflection on why secular national liberation movements are so often challenged by militant religious revivals
About the Author
Eminent political theorist Michael Walzer, an emeritus professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, served as coeditor of the political journal Dissent for more than three decades and has played a critical role in the revival of practical, issue-focused ethics.
Table of Contents
ch. 1.Personal attitudes and political arrangements --ch. 2.Five regimes of toleration --ch. 3.Complicated cases --ch. 4.Practical issues --ch. 5.Modern and postmodern multiculturalism.