The Revolutionary Center: The Lost Genius of Liberalism

A cultural history of liberalism--one of our most widely used yet misunderstood terms--that reveals why the world urgently needs a more liberal mindset.

"Strongly recommended. This illuminating and in-depth history is a valuable contribution to U.S. business history because it explains financial events and the culture of innovation from macro­economic perspectives and offers remarkable insights into the current business climate."-- Library Journal (starred review)

So-called liberalism has been twisted out of shape by both the left- and right-wing who incorrectly conceive of it in ideological terms, without understanding what a liberal philosophy really entails. In untangling these misconceptions, Wooldridge reveals why the world desperately needs to adopt a proper liberal mindset.

The cycles of history predict that without a return to liberalism, we face autocracy, fascism, and the societal stratification already visible in the world's structures of opposition: populists versus elitists, the ultra-woke versus the steadfastly traditional, and capitalist-triumphalists against capitalist-catastrophists. A call to arms amidst American economic stagnation and the global censorship of information, Adrian's new book guides us through liberalism's intellectual, cultural, and political histories to remind us of the true liberal's values: freedom through self-determinism, individual rights, healthy skepticism, thoughtful tolerance, and aversion to dogmatism.

Adrian diagnoses areas of necessary improvement for today's passive liberals, who would do well to embody the flexible, moderate, and critical approaches of their Cold War predecessors. The West's success against Communist totalitarianism came from recognizing the need for a strong military defense while using open communication to explain what the West was defending. This energy must be applied to our understanding of overseas regimes and of Western capitalism at home.

To avoid global catastrophe and uphold intellectual freedom and privacy, we must learn from the liberal past and look ahead, critiquing the structures we find ourselves in and those further afield.

Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist at Bloomberg News. Previously, he was the Economist ' s political editor, author of the Bagehot column, author of the Schumpeter column, Washington bureau chief, and author of the Lexington column. Adrian was educated at Balliol College and All Souls College, Oxford, where he earned a doctor of philosophy in history. He is the author of twelve previous books, most recently Capitalism in America (with Alan Greenspan) and The Aristocracy of Talent. Adrain lives in London.