Edmund Fawcett worked at The Economist for more than three decades, serving as chief correspondent in Washington, Paris and Berlin. He is the son of the human rights lawyer James Fawcett, who was president of the European Human Rights Commission and who was at the United Nations in 1948 when the Declaration pf Human Rights was approved.
Mr. Fawcett Jr. has written an interesting book that discusses celebrated liberal thinkers from Humboldt and Constant to Mill, Hayek and Rawls. Also political leaders such as FD Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Willy Brandt, Hoover, Reagan, Thatcher and Kohl. Fawcett tracks political liberalism from its beginnings in the 1830s to its grudging compromise with democracy, through a golden age after 1945 to the present mood of challenge and doubt.
His analysis focuses on four countries: United States, Britain, France and Germany.
Though liberalism has many currents, Fawcett suggests that four ideas have guided liberal practice:
1. Acknowledgement of inescapable ethical and material conflict within society;
2. Distrust of power;
3. Faith in human progress; and
4. Respect for people whatever they think and whoever they are.
Although I don´t always agree with the author when he covers some liberals of the Twentieth Century, I generally enjoyed very much his book. If you are looking for a comprehensive and generally understandable introduction to liberal thinkers and politicians, their ideas and experiences, this book is a fine reading.
