On the academic left, liberalism is routinely associated with the evils of possessive individualism, free markets, and the system of New World slavery: it is as if all liberals are really neoliberals. Bleak Liberalism is a bracing reminder of the often-overlooked complexities and tensions in the liberal intellectual tradition
in the work of Victorian reformers, modern skeptics, and Cold War anticommunists. ... Read moreBut more than that, it is a worthy successor to Lionel Trilling's The Liberal Imagination, delineating a robust and expansive liberal aesthetic in the history of the novel. This book is a major work of literary and cultural criticism.
Michael B rub , author of What's Liberal about the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and Bias in Higher Education Anderson's bold, sharply edged argumentation throws down the gauntlet against misunderstandings of liberalism by the right and the left. Adorno is strikingly juxtaposed to Trilling and Ralph Ellison to Doris Lessing, all against the backdrop of Anderson's powerful revaluation of the aesthetics and politics of major Victorian novels. An incisive rethinking of realism and modernism, the political and the aesthetic, and the labels radical, liberal, neoliberal.
John Brenkman, author of The Cultural Contradictions of Democracy: Political Thought since September 11 I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Anderson turns to a combination of literary criticism and intellectual history to show how liberalism can accommodate
and indeed is articulated in relation to
a 'bleak' view of history and society, that is, one which does not downplay the social and historical centrality of crisis, fluidity/unpredictability, and violence. Bleak Liberalism knows exactly what it wants to say, and what it wants to say is important and will interest many.
Simon During, author of Against Democracy: Literary Experience in the Era of Emancipations How does liberalism relate to literature? Amanda Anderson sets us straight on a much abused word by teasing out liberalism's complex entanglement with literary history and literary form. Her book is a triumph of analytical precision and careful description as well as a rebuttal of lazy thinking. Bleak Liberalism is a major contribution to literary theory and political theory that is sure to stimulate much discussion.
Rita Felski, author of The Limits of Critique Show Less