Themes: Liberal thought and thinkers
The myth of New Liberalism
Continuity and change in Liberal politics, 1889-1914.
‘Reluctant’ or Liberal collectivists?
The social liberalism of John Maynard Keynes and William Beveridge, 1922-1945.
Intelligent Liberalism
Review of Conrad Russell, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Liberalism (Duckworth, 1999).
Heir to the New Liberals?
The contribution of the American philosopher John Rawls to political philosophy and Liberal thought.
Philosopher of freedom
Wilhelm von Humboldt and early German Liberalism.
The origins of community politics
How did the Liberal Party come to adopt a strategy of community politics in 1970? This article traces the origins of the concept from the New, or Social, Liberalism of Thomas Hill Green, through Jo Grimond’s leadership of the Liberal Party, to the counter-culture of the 1960s.
Ralf Dahrendorf (Lord Dahrendorf), 1929-2009
Writing in 1997, Ralf Dahrendorf referred to his favourite countries: Britain and Germany, and the Europe – even the Europe – to which they both belong; his commitment to public service, to academia, to politics and to liberalism has been visible in all of them. Born in Hamburg, that most anglophile of German cities, on…
The Rainbow Circle and the New Liberalism
Examination of the role of a little-known radical group in the 1890s in the evolution of the Liberal and Labour parties.
The development of the New Liberalism as a philosophy of transition
The philosophy that underpinned the Liberal Party’s revival in the 1906 election.
Reformulating Liberalism
Review of L. T. Hobhouse, Liberalism and Other Writings, edited by James Meadowcroft (Cambridge University Press, 1994).