A World After Liberalism: Philosophers of the Radical Right

Morningside Institute religious scholar Rose (Ethics of Barth) delivers a first-rate intellectual history of the “dissident authors and taboo traditions” that have influenced “a revolution in conservate thinking” that questions minority rights, religious tolerance, cultural pluralism, and other tenets of the liberal world order. Rose unpacks the writings of far right commentators and academics including Samuel Francis, a former Washington Times columnist and “right-wing Marxist” whose political doctrine “synthesized nationalist populism with brewing racial resentments over the shrinking demographic majority of white Americans,” and Alain de Benoist, a leader of the French far right whose theories of “folk democracy” highlighted the need for “cultural cohesion and a clear sense of shared heritage.” Though Rose critiques the conclusions reached by these thinkers, he takes their ideas seriously, explaining how the socioeconomic failures of neoliberalism have led to an embrace of ethno-nationalism and a contempt for egalitarianism. Ultimately, Rose persuasively argues that the roots of today’s “postliberal moment” are more substantial than many on the right and the left want to believe. This is an illuminating deep dive into an urgent political matter. (Aug.)