| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Strange Death of American Liberalism. By H. W. Brands. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. xvi, 200 pp. $22.50, ISBN 0-300-09021-8.)

The Strange Death of American Liberalism is a rare intellectual treat: a sparkling historical argument into which readers can sink their teeth. Whether one agrees or disagrees, the book makes for good discussion.

In elegant essay fashion, H. W. Brands coolly asserts that American liberals achieved the major reforms of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s not because they had God on their side, but because they had the Cold War. By his deft example, Brands also proves that domestic history and American foreign policy are inherently linked and that to de-couple them is to risk major interpretive errors. Nonetheless, he still stops a bit short. The nation's history is intertwined as well with that of its contemporaries. In effect, Brands de-couples national history from world history and thereby misses an opportunity further to test his intriguing argument.

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