Liberalism as a Way of Life (Hardcover)

Hardcover. Why liberalism is all you need to lead a good, fun, worthy, and rewarding life and how you can become a better and happier person by taking your liberal beliefs more seriouslyWhere do you get your values and sensibilities from? If you grew up in a Western democracy, the answer is probably liberalism. Conservatives are right about one thing: liberalism is the ideology of our times, as omnipresent as religion once was. Yet, as Alexandre Lefebvre argues in Liberalism as a Way of Life, many of us are liberal without fully realizing it or grasping what it means. Misled into thinking that liberalism is confined to politics, we fail to recognise that its the water we swim in, saturating every area of public and private life, shaping our psychological and spiritual outlooks, and influencing our moral and aesthetic values our sense of what is right, wrong, good, bad, funny, worthwhile, and more. This eye-opening book shows how so many of us are liberal to the core, why liberalism provides the basis for a good life, and how we can make our lives better and happier by becoming more aware of, and more committed to, the beliefs we already hold.A lively, engaging, and uplifting guide to living well, the liberal way, Liberalism as a Way of Life is filled with examples from television, movies, stand-up comedy, and social media from Parks and Recreation and The Good Place to the Borat movies and Hannah Gadsby. Along the way, youll also learn about seventeen benefits of being a liberal including generosity, humor, cheer, gratitude, tolerance, and peace of mind and practical exercises to increase these rewards.Youre probably already waist-deep in the waters of liberalism. Liberalism as a Way of Life invites you to dive in.'An indispensable antidote to our prevailing condition of fashionable pessimism.' Scott Stevens, The Australian Book Review 'Liberalism as a Way of Life is one of the most original accounts of liberalism in a generation. With immense charm, insight, and lightly carried erudition, Lefebvre moves liberalism from a set of abstract claims to the art of living. It has the singular virtue of important books: it is serious fun.' Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Princeton University'Alexandre Lefebvres brilliant book brings to light an important dimension of liberalism that is hidden, as it were, in plain sight. Liberalism is not only a procedural, political, or legal concept, but also a moral and even spiritual one that serves as a guide for social transformation. Given the dire situation that liberalism faces around the world today, this message is especially important, and the book deserves a wide readership.' Helena Rosenblatt, author of The Lost History of Liberalism'As liberalism increasingly comes under attack from both the left and the right, Alexandre Lefebvre mounts a deep and stirring defense, steeped in intellectual history and tied to contemporary culture. Lefebvre emphasizes the great joys and benefits that come from embracing reciprocity, freedom, and fairness, to live liberally; and he develops a set of spiritual exercises through which we can learn to succeed at liberalism as a way of life. This is philosophical self-help of the highest order a literally extraordinary book.' Daniel Markovits, author of The Meritocracy Trap'The great virtue of Alexandre Lefebvres book is that it concedes one of the key points of antiliberals: Liberalism isnt just a set of neutral procedures; its a comprehensive way of life that shapes the way we live and think and work and love in innumerable ways. Yet he insists that its a way of life worth robustly defend Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…