Freedom from Fear

A provocative new history of liberalism that also provides a road map for today’s liberals

Freedom from Fear offers a striking new account of the dominant political and social theory of our time: liberalism. In a pathbreaking reframing of the historical debate, Alan Kahan charts the development of Western liberalism from the late eighteenth century to the present. Examining key liberal thinkers and issues, Kahan shows how liberalism is both a response to fear and a source of hope: the search for a world in which no one need be afraid.

Freedom from Fear reveals how liberal arguments typically rely on three pillars: freedom, markets, and morals. But when liberals ignore one or more of these pillars, their arguments generally fail to persuade. Extending from Adam Smith and Montesquieu to today’s battles between liberals and populists, the book examines the twists and turns of the “incomplete” or unfinished liberal tradition while demonstrating its fundamental continuity. It combines fresh accounts of familiar figures such as Tocqueville and Rawls with discussions of less-famous but pivotal thinkers such as A. V. Dicey and Jane Addams, and explores how liberals have dealt with crucial issues, from debates over male and female suffrage to colonialism and liberal anti-Catholicism.

By transforming our understanding of the history of liberal thought and practice, Freedom from Fear provides a new picture of the political creed today: the paths liberals need to follow, the questions they need to answer, and the dead ends they must avoid—if they are to win.

"[A] stunningly comprehensive intellectual history of liberalism as a term, a contested movement, and an ideal, ably showing its development across time, divergences within the tradition, and the failings that have led to contemporary challenges. . . . [Freedom from Fear] is a valuable reference work as well as a sort of broader intellectual history; it bears keeping on the shelf to brush up on both original sources and on an impressive breadth of secondary scholarship."---Philip D. Bunn, University Bookman

"[A] masterful and beautifully written history of liberalism’s long intellectual journey."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

"If Kahan’s history of liberalism is incomplete, it remains one of the best histories of the tradition available, and offers us the tools to rethink it today."---Hugo Drochon, Times Literary Supplement

"The roots of both the market economy and the democratic state lie in liberalism. In this remarkable book, Kahan recounts in persuasive detail the history of this transformative set of ideas."---Martin Wolf, Financial Times

"A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year"

"A Financial Times Best Book of the Year: Economics"

“Alan Kahan is already well known as a historian of liberalism. Freedom from Fear will cement his reputation as a scholar whose analytical acuity is backed by formidable historical scholarship. Here, he ranges widely both in space and time, from seventeenth-century England to twenty-first-century America, and through just about all imaginable varieties of liberalism. I cannot imagine any reader who will not be enlightened by the book.”—Alan Ryan, author of On Politics

“A masterful examination of key liberal thinkers, Freedom from Fear is original, compelling, and important.”—Helena Rosenblatt, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

“A very valuable reconsideration of the history of liberal political thought, Freedom from Fear covers a lot of ground with insight and clarity.”—Bernard Yack, Brandeis University

“Freedom from Fear is broad in historical and geographical scope and discusses many relevant ideas and thinkers that haven’t received extensive attention. For all that it exposes the weaknesses of liberalism, this is a spirited defense of liberalism that forces readers to engage with its arguments.”—Jeremy Jennings, King’s College London