Aristocratic liberalism : the social and political thought of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill, and Alexis de Tocqueville / Alan S. Kahan.

Originally published: New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-228) and index.

1. Past and Present: The Eighteenth Century and the Origins of Modernity -- 2. The Spirit of the Majority -- 3. Despotisms: The State and Its Masters -- 4. Modern Humanism: The Values of Aristocratic Liberalism -- 5. "Working against Time": The Aristocratic Liberal Response to the Challenge of Modernity -- 6. Conclusion: Toward a History of European Liberalism, 1830-1870.

"Aristocratic Liberalism ignores the national boundaries that so often confine the history of political thought, and uses the perspective thus gained to establish a pan-European type of political thought. Going beyond Burckhardt. Mill, and Tocqueville, Aristocratic Liberalism argues for new ways of looking at nineteenth-century liberalism.

It corrects many prevalent misconceptions about liberalism, and suggests new paths for arriving at a better understanding of the leading form of nineteenth-century political thought. The new Afterword by the author presents a novel description of liberal political language as the "discourse of capacity," and suggests that this kind of language is the common denominator of all forms of European liberalism in the nineteenth century.

Aristocratic Liberalism will be valuable to students of history, political science, sociology, and political philosophy."--BOOK JACKET.