David Walsh is professor of politics at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of The Priority of the Person and Politics of the Person as the Politics of Being.

"Walsh calls on us to immerse ourselves in this liberal tradition and to learn from it. It differs from the liberal thought of our century, for which liberty, having lost most of its intrinsic and constitutive appeal, serves mainly to promote economic growth, shield us from fearsome dictators, and free us to pursue our various conceptions of the good." —The Independent Review"On good liberal grounds alone, academic liberals should appreciate David Walsh's powerful new defense of liberalism. A valuable contribution to the increasingly edifying debate led by conservatives over liberalism's future, this book gently but firmly exposes the illusions that conceal from contemporary liberalism the source of the liberal spirit's formidable moral authority." —First Things

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1. Dimensions of the Problem1. Crisis of Liberal Politics2. Enduring Moral Authority3. Utopian Forgetfulness of DepthPart 2. Historical Sources and Resources4. Liberal Achievement of Order from Disorder5. Struggle as a Source of Liberal Richness6. Source of Liberal Appeal: Secular ChristianityPart 3. Outline of a Renovation7. Incompleteness of a Liberal Order8. Meditative Expansion of LimitsNotesBibliographyIndex