The CONSERVATIVE FOUNDATIONS OF THE LIBERAL ORDER: Defending Democracy against Its Modern Enemies and Immoderate Friends

"Mahoney covers a vasr field with speed, brio, and pertinence, evoking nearly all the great question of the hour."---Pierre Manent

"This is a serious treatment of a serious problem. To understand what is worth recovering from liberalism, and so to conserve it, Mahoney draws upon Tocqueville and Bruke, Solzhenitsyn nd Aron, as well as the statesmanship of Churchill and de Gaulle. It is a splendid synthesis as well as a spirited defense."

Barry Cooper, University of Calgary

Praise for Daniel J. Mahoney

"Daniel Mahoney has done a brilliant job ... This is political philosophy of a high order, very readably presented."

"Listen to the wise advice of Daniel J. Mahoney, professor of political science at Assumption College and the author of several books that wrestle with the moral perplexities of living with Liberalism and, by extension, of coming to grips with modernity."---The New Criterion

"Anything by Daniel Mahoney is worth reading."---Wilson Carey McWilliams, Rutgers University

"Daniel Mahoney's book is a splendid achievement."---Philippe Beneton, author of Equality by Default

"Admirable in the first instance for its judiciousness, its clarity, and for an economy of expression."---Patrick J. Deneen, Society

"Factually and conceptually rich."---Paul Gottfried, Chronicles

Western Democracy has become increasingly estranged from its crucial historical, political, spiritual, and culturl prerequisites-from what author Daniel J. Mahoney calls "the conservative foundations of the liberal order." In this eloquent and insightful work of political philosophy and cultural criticism. Mahoney offers a vigorous defense of these foundations, and shows the dangers of identifying liberty with a radical project of social and cultural emancipation.

The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order takes particular aim at partisans of "pure democracy," who have transformed the principles of liberty and equality into an unreflective dogma. By reducing liberty to a vague affirmation of equality and individual autonomy, Mahoney shows, such partisans undermine those "contents of life"-religion, patriotism, philosophical reflection, family and social life-that enrich human existence and give purpose to human freedom. What we need instead is a conservative-minded liberalism.

Calling on the wisdom of Winston Churchill, Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Raymond Aron, and other exemplary leaders and thinkers, Mahoney addresses a wide range of questions related to liberty in the contemporary world. He brilliantly analyzes the task of the democratic statesman; the need for prudence, sobriety, and civic courage in confronting the totalitarian enemies of the West; the ties that bind religion and democratic liberty; democracy's tendency to squander its own inheritance in frenzied efforts to establish a humn order that is more and more "democratic"; the follies of the post modern "culture of repudiation"; the reasons so many intellectuals indulge totalitarianism and terrorism; and much more.

Rejecting the dual temptations of utopianism and despair, Mahoney defends self-government-properly understood-against both democracy's enemies and its all-too-numerous "Immoderte friends." The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order upholds the rich civilized inheritance that allows human beings to lead free and decent lives together.