The betrayal of liberalism : how the disciples of freedom and equality helped foster the illiberal politics of coercion and control / edited with an introduction by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball.

Includes index.

Introduction: The Betrayal of Liberalism / Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball -- Rousseau and the Origins of Liberalism / Roger Scruton -- Mill, Stephen, and the Nature of Freedom / Roger Kimball -- Liberalism and Imperialism / Keith Windschuttle -- Liberalism and the Law / Hadley Arkes -- Liberals and Totalitarianism / Robert Conquest -- The Bright Line: Liberalism and Religion / Jean Bethke Elshtain -- Liberalism and American Foreign Policy / Robert Kagan -- Procedure or Dogma: The Core of Liberalism / John Silber -- The Moral Consequences of Impatience / John O'Sullivan. .

"In this collection of essays which appeared originally in The New Criterion, nine distinguished critics and observers examine the origins and prospects of liberalism, from its roots in thinkers such as Rousseau and Mill to its troubled legacy in twentieth-century pursuits. They are cogent in explaining the compromising effects of liberalism in the moral and intellectual life of our culture, and seek to disentangle what is beneficent from what is destructive in its ideas."--BOOK JACKET.