A Thousand Small Sanities

A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism

First edition
Author	Adam Gopnik
Language	English
Subject	Political science, Liberalism
Genre	Non-fiction
Set in	Politics of 2019
Publisher	Basic Books
Publication date	May 14, 2019
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print, CD, E-book
Pages	249 or 272
ISBN	9781541699359
OCLC	1051137376

A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism is a non-fiction book about liberalism by Adam Gopnik. published by Basic Books on May 14, 2019.

Summary

The book explores concepts surrounding liberalism, humanism, and conservatism. The main theme of the book is that liberalism and liberals are under attack, not just from the right, but also from the left.

Another theme is that liberalism is historically, and presently, more than "political centrism or the idea of free markets" and thus is an overarching concern for "positive, inclusive changes at all social and political levels."

Besides covering the roots of liberalism's and conservatism's past, historical people are discussed, who are deemed liberal in the present and who were not deemed liberals in their own time. Gopnik avoids emphasizing connections to 17th and 18th century philosophers as well as the founders who were the original conduits for bringing a democratic system into existence during the modern age. Rather, he covers such persons as Harriet Taylor, Frederick Douglass, Emma Goldman, Bayard Rustin, George Eliot and E. D. Morel, along with others.

Pragmatism

Another theme is that engaging in the extremes of the far-left can lead to, for example, "the attempt to define liberty for everyone"—which, according to Gopnik, has historically resulted in totalitarian regimes. Incremental, inclusive liberalism is the preferred method. Judged apolitical in tenor, the book may steer democrats away from 2020-era progressive policies and towards a liberalism that is "sensible, skeptical, cautious, reformist, and moderate— a path to political safety" between the extremes of the left and the right. The book does not define this as a political outlook, rather it is about maintaining a practical demeanor or "temperament".

Gopnik believes that he has successfully clarified the definition of "liberalism".

Reception

David Sessions, a doctoral student in modern European history at Boston College, and a fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, from The New Republic criticizes the book heavily, saying that it "lacks a fundamental understanding of political-economic power" and "A Thousand Small Sanities is not about politics, but about feelings toward politics."

In page 61 of the book, Gopnik writes: "...Environmental disasters are the right thing to be worried about, but it is the drive for growth, not capitalism in particular, that makes them happen. The degree and level of environmental disaster caused by the command economics of Eastern Europe were far greater than even the worst known in Western Europe and was made still worse by a state-controlled media that could not even wave a feeble flag of dissent. " Sessions is critical of this part, and says that we shouldn't "ignore that industrial production and the 'drive for growth' had conquered the globe before communism ever existed, and that the last 30 years since the total global triumph of the capitalist system have been worse for the climate than the centuries that preceded them" just because the Eastern bloc had a bad environmental record during its 45-year existence.

Sessions says that The New Republic didn't expect much from Gopnik, but A Thousand Small Sanities still presented them running clichés and a refusal to look at reality, which showed them how little the American establishment has learned since the turn of the century.

External links

• A Thousand Small Sanities. Publisher's website. August 2019.