A Tale of Two Liberalisms: Desegregating American Political Thought

• In Event: Liberalism, Republicanism, and Communal Freedom in American Political Thought

Abstract

Susan McWilliams Barndt’s paper “A Tale of Two Liberalisms: Desegregating American Political Thought” argues that American political thought is defined not by one but by two liberal traditions: Enlightenment, individualist liberalism of the kind central to Louis Hartz’s The Liberal Tradition in America, and what Barnt calls Exodus liberalism, whereby freedom is only collectively achieved and sustained, an understanding of freedom expressed primarily (though not exclusively) in African-American political thought. By appreciating the complex interplay between these two liberal traditions, we can better understand the nature of, and the possibilities for, American liberalism and American Politics.

Author

• Susan McWilliams, Pomona College