Liberalism: A Counter-History - Hardcover

Liberalism is far too serious to be left in the hands of the liberals.A" Il Giornale The latest, original work by Domenico Losurdo, a philosopher-historian of great lucidity, author of always innovative books - travels through and analyzes the dark, deep and often malodorous side of liberalism.A" La Stampa Vast historical research recommended for the depth of the 'excavation' and for the wealth of new material that emerges.A" Il Sole 24 Ore There is always something to learn from books by Domenico Losurdo. And [this book] is no exception, for the outstanding knowledge of modern and contemporary political thought, the rigorous philology and the pursuit of sources that have been forgotten or expunged.A" Il Corriere della Sera

In this definitive historical investigation of the formation of liberalism from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, Domenico Losurdo overturns complacent and self-congratulatory accounts by showing that, from its very origins, liberalism and its main thinkers-Locke,Burke, Tocqueville, Constant, Bentham, Sieyes and others-have been bound up with the defense of the thoroughly illiberal policies of slavery,colonialism, genocide, racism and elitism. Losurdo probes the inner contradictions of liberalism, also focusing on minority currents that moved to more radical positions, and provides an authoritative account of the relationship between the domestic and colonial spheres in the constitution of a liberal order.