| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

American Liberalism: An Interpretation for Our Time. By John McGowan. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. x, 269 pp. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8078-3171-7.)
"I am an English professor, not someone who teaches American history or American politics," John McGowan writes at the end of this book (p. 195). His disclaimer will not come as news to the historians and political scientists among his readers. McGowan writes with passion. "Democracy ain't worth a damn if it's not liberal," he proclaims at the start, and he proceeds with comparable verve (p. 1). But he writes with little historical depth or political subtlety.	1
McGowan approaches his subject in circular fashion. His long first section lays out a philosophy of liberalism. The shorter second section contrasts liberalism to conservatism. The third section, "Historical Interlude," is briefer still. The fourth and final section treats liberalism's relationship with democracy.	. . .

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