Ezra's Bookshelf

A World After Liberalism

by Matthew Rose · 206 pages · ~3.5 hrs

Politics & GovernmentPhilosophy

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Matthew Rose introduces readers to the 'radical right'—thinkers who reject not just liberal policies but the premises of human equality and individual rights that liberalism assumes. The book profiles figures largely unknown outside specialist circles: Oswald Spengler, who saw history as the rise and fall of cultures rather than progress; Julius Evola, the Italian esotericist who influenced fascism and contemporary neo-reaction; Alain de Benoist, founder of the French New Right; and contemporary Americans building on their legacy. Rose explains these thinkers' ideas with clarity while maintaining critical distance. He shows how they imagine political communities organized around hierarchy, tradition, and ethnic identity rather than liberal universalism. The book serves as a warning: these ideas, long marginalized, are finding new audiences as faith in liberal democracy wavers. Rose argues that understanding the radical right's appeal is essential for those who would defend liberalism. The book is both intellectual history and contemporary analysis, valuable for anyone seeking to understand the ideas animating authoritarian movements worldwide.

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