Liberalism and community /

Kautz intends to overcome partisan bickering about the political right and to restore to American public philosophy its fundamental principles--classical liberalism. He builds on the spirit of Harvey C. Mansfield Jr.'s The Spirit of Liberalism (CH, Feb'79), refuting contemporary versions of liberalism like John Rawls's and Benjamin Barber's, which inspire individuals to something other than the private pursuit of happiness and to choices based in something other than reasonable self-interest. Like David Conway in Classical Liberalism: The Unvanquished Ideal (CH, May'96), Kautz engages communitarians Michael Sandel and Alasdair MacIntyre and modern liberals Rawls and Ronald Dworkin (among others), arguing that other differences notwithstanding, these theorists embrace classical liberalism's principle of individualism. Closer to Mansfield than to Conway, Kautz engages Michael Walzer as a "participatory" liberal and Richard Rorty as a "radical" postmodern liberal, agreeing with Nathan Tarcov (Locke's Education for Liberty, 1984) that Locke's theory of education is his solution to the problem of the proper disposition of the passions. This serious, timely effort to restore classical liberalism and restrain the excesses of contemporary liberal practice is recommended for political scientists, philosophers, historians, and educators. R. J. Vichot Florida International University