cover image Reclaiming Liberalism

Reclaiming Liberalism

Leslie W. Dunbar. W. W. Norton & Company, $19.95 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-393-02908-6

Dunbar believes that all states, democratic or not, are inherently despotic, putting their own needs and values above those of the citizenry. Most of the current maneuverings of Democrats and Republicans, he charges, represent attempts to maintain the status of elites by controlling or shutting out the poor ``of the nation and of the world generally.'' A salutary, timely rethinking of liberalism for the '90s, this exercise in political thought by the fo r mer director of the Southern Regional Council endorses liberals' critical stance toward America's ``civil religions'' such as Manifest Destiny, white supremacy and fanatical anticommunism. Boldly calling for the abolition of the CIA, Dunbar outlines a new, constitutional method to limit what he sees as the innately violent behavior of government. (Nov.)