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For nearly three decades, the English political scientist Harold Laski was the gray eminence of American liberalism and its most influential Marxist public intellectual. As a fervent proponent of the New Deal in the 1930s, much of Laski's success stemmed from the fact that he offered answers when so many Americans had only questions. By the postwar years, however, his reputation was in decline and his influence left the Democratic Party vulnerable in the1948 elections. In Harold Laski and American Liberalism Gary Dean Best traces the trajectory of Laski's American career and accounts for its ultimate failure.American politics and society were central to Laski's intellectual enterprise. As Best shows, probably no one residing in America has published as many words critical of the United States as did this Englishman. Virtually no aspect of American life went unscathed, and yet at the root of every attack was American capitalism, the businessman, those with property, who, in Laski's view were the source of all the perversion of American life.The 1930s was a period of ferment among America's intellectuals. By the 1940s it was only Laski who was bewildered--at the failure of his diagnoses and the rejection of his prescriptions even by those who had been captivated by him in the previous decade. By the time he died, in 1950, his earlier pronouncements seemed wide of the mark, and the increased stridency and shrillness produced by his disappointment had begun to bore even many who had been devoted to him in earlier years.As this volume shows, the real tragedy for Laski was that he allowed his intellect to be captured and held captive by the Marxian dialectic, denying himself the use of his own reason despite that dialectic's repeated failures. Harold Laski and American Liberalism will be of interest to intellectual historians, political scientists, and American studies specialists.
This Book, A Classic By One Of The Outstanding Political Scientists Of The Twentieth Century Seeks To Take Account Of The Factors Through Which Liberalism, The Guiding Doctrine Of Western Civilization Emerged As A New Ideology To Meet The Needs Of A New World In Which Status Was Replaced By Contract As The Judicial Foundation Of Society, Science Began To Replace Religion As The Controlling Factor In Giving Shape To The Ideas Of Humanity.Liberalism Was Synonymous Of Freedom Since It Emerged As The Foe Of Privilege Conferred By Virtue Of Birth Or Creed. However, The Freedom It Sought Had No Universality, Since Its Practice Was Limited To Men Who Had Property To Defend. Liberalism Tried To Discover A System Of Fundamental Rights, Which The State Is Not Entitled To Invade; However, It Turned Out To Be More Urgent And More Ingenious In Exerting Them To Defend The Interests Of Property Than To Protect The Interest Of Propertyless. As Soon As It Sought To Effect Fundamental Transformation Of Institutions Whose Habits It Was Supposed To Inform, It Found That It Was The Prisoner Of The End, It Was Destined To Serve. Soon The Liberal Spirit Was Vandalized And What Ensued Was War And Devastation, Ironically In The Name Of Saving That Very Spirit.Although Written In 1936, This Work Appears Equally Relevant Today As It Helps To Understand The Difficulties Of Our Time.
This timeless classic by Harold J. Laski explains the nature of the modern state by examining its characteristics, as revealed by its history. The State in Theory and Practice is a work that grows in significance, rather than dwindles over time. This is because, as Sidney A. Pearson, Jr. points out, Laski helped develop and expound the foundational arguments of the political left.After the collapse of the Soviet Union, even on the hard left, few people thought of Marxism, at least in its classical formulation by Laski in the 1930s, as a political alternative. Much of the interest in Laski seeks to separate the early Laski of pluralist parliamentary arguments from the later Laski of Marxism. Laski's appeal rests on subtle aspects of his science of politics that require a detailed examination before their full significance can be understood. The state is a work that operates at several layers of assumptions and implications.The significance of Laski starts with the observation that among many intellectuals on the left, the political critique of liberal democracy remains as influential after the collapse of the Soviet Union as it was when Laski wrote. The leftist critique of classical liberalism is one of the touchstones of modern political thought and Laski remains part of that tradition. Laski is one of the links between what might be called the ""old left"" of the pre-World War II era and the ""new left"" of the 1960's and later.
This is the first comparative study of early twentieth-century French and British schools of political pluralism. A wide-ranging survey of the works of thinkers such as JN Figgis, GDH Cole, Harold Laski, Edouard Berth, Maxime Leroy and Léon Duguit, Pluralist Thought and the State in Britain and France, 1900-25 is a major contribution both to the study of national tradition of political thought and to the understanding of relationships between state, groups and individuals in democratic societies.
From Viktor Orban in Hungary, to Brexit in Britain, to Donald Trump in America, nationalists are launching an all-out assault on liberal values. In this sweeping narrative, political journalist Ian Dunt tells the story of liberalism, from its epic struggle against absolute monarchy to its modern-day resistance to the new populism.
Laski's Theory of the State This influential study develops aspects of Laski's theory of the state, ideas he introduced in his first important publication, Authority in the Modern State (1919). According to Laski, the state is not a supreme entity; it is one association among many that must compete for the people's loyalty and obedience. Harold J. Laski [1893-1950] was a teacher, political scientist, and leader of the Labour Party. His ideas influenced the work of Felix Frankfurter and Oliver Wendell Holmes, who were two of his closest friends. His work also influenced Jawaharlal Nehru who would go on to become India's first prime minister. xi, [iii], 317 pp.
Written in a lively and accessible style, the book will provoke debate among students and scholars alike. Throughout, Terence Ball shows just how exciting and important political theory can be.
In this tightly organized collection of essays, sixteen distinguished political theorists explore Shklar's intellectual legacy, focusing both on her own ideas and on the broad range of issues that most intrigued her. The volume opens with a series of varied and illuminating assessments of Shklar's conception of liberal politics. The second part, with essays on Descartes and Racine, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Laski, emphasizes the relation between individual freedom and moral psychology in modern political thought. The third part addresses contemporary issues, such as the role of hypocrisy, offensive speech, and constitutional courts in liberal democracies. The book concludes with an autobiographical essay by Shklar that provides a vivid sense of her singular voice and personality.