The Retreat of Western Liberalism

by Edward Luce

Overview

An “insightful and harrowing” analysis of the state of Western-style democracy by the Financial Times columnist and author of Time to Start Thinking (The New York Times).

In his widely acclaimed book Time to Start Thinking, Financial Times columnist Edward Luce charted the course of America’s economic and geopolitical decline, proving to be a prescient voice on the state of the nation.

In The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of democratic liberalism—of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a symptom. Luce argues that we are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance toward society’s economic losers, and complacency about our system’s durability—attitudes that have been emerging since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unless the West can rekindle an economy that produces gains for the majority of its people, its political liberties may be doomed.

Combining on-the-ground reporting with economic analysis, Luce offers a detailed projection of the consequences of the Trump administration and a forward-thinking analysis of what those who believe in enlightenment values must do to protect them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802188861
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	02/26/2020
Series:	Books That Changed the World
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	226
Sales rank:	560,079
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Edward Luce was a speech writer for the Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers and now works as the chief U.S. columnist for the Financial Times. He is the author of the national best seller In Spite of the Gods, and lives in Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

In Moscow’s view, history is back and nothing is inevitable, least of all liberal democracy. Others, in Beijing, Ankara, Cairo, Caracas, and even Budapest, share Russia’s hostility to Western notions of progress, as do growing numbers of apostates in the West. Are they wrong?

This book is my attempt to answer that question. Let me declare now that nothing is preordained. To a person whose life has coincided with the rise of democracy, the spread of market economics and signs that the world had finally subscribed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (even if much of it is paid only in lip service – hypocrisy, as they say, being the compliment vice pays to virtue), merely to pose the question is troubling enough. Wasn’t that debate settled a long time ago? Isn’t the march of human freedom unstoppable? Doesn’t the whole world crave to be Western? We can no longer have any confidence in that. It was remarkably arrogant to believe the rest of the world would passively adopt our script. Those who still believe in the inevitable triumph of the Western model might ask themselves whether it is faith, rather than facts, that fuels their worldview. We must cast a sceptical eye on what we have learned never to question. Our sanity may be tested in the process.

Table of Contents

Preface 1

1 Fusion 17

2 Reaction 75

3 Fallout 143

4 Half Life 185

Afterword 203

Acknowledgements 217

Notes 221

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

To understand the nature of this crisis, we could not find a better guide than Edward Luce's The Retreat of Western Liberalism…Luce writes in fluid prose, moving from a telling statistic to a striking quotation. Throughout, one is struck by his command of the material and the acuity of his prose—he is unsparing in his condemnation of the elites who didn't see this coming, too absorbed in their own bubble, too confident of their smart strategies…The West faces many problems, and Luce outlines them vividly.

The New York Times Book Review - Fareed Zakaria

…insightful and harrowing…Like Richard Haass's recent book, A World in Disarray, this volume…[is] equally timely and informed, providing an important overview of the dynamics in an increasingly interconnected and fragmented planet. In his prescient 2012 book, Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent, Luce uncannily anticipated the politics of resentment and the bitter fights over immigration that would fuel "Brexit" and last year's American election. And in [The Retreat of Western Liberalism], he lucidly expounds on the erosion of the West's middle classes, the dysfunction among its political and economic elites and the consequences for America and the world…Luce's conclusions are pessimistic but not entirely devoid of hope. "The West's crisis is real, structural and likely to persist," he writes. "Nothing is inevitable. Some of what ails the West is within our power to fix." Doing so means rejecting complacency about democracy and our system's resilience, and "understanding exactly how we got here." Luce's book is one good place to start.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

05/01/2017
With this wide-ranging account, Luce (Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent) enters the fray of books posing the post-2016 question “What just happened?” He begins with a summary of the current global economy’s formation and its connections to prevailing modes of governance. This leads into a history of liberal democracy, which Luce argues is held together most strongly by economic growth. In the absence of such growth, illiberal tendencies take hold. The author then explores the possible consequences of the decline of Western hegemony, including a theoretical war against China which Luce calls “not a prediction” but “a plausible extrapolation of the direction in which Trump is taking U.S. foreign policy.” The final section asks, briefly, what is to be done. Luce’s historical analysis is on point and he seems to understand the current situation as well as one could hope. One difficulty lies, however, is trying to predict the future in an era defined by a figure as mercurial as the 45th president. The main points are still relevant, even if some of the particulars will be dated before the book hits the shelves. (June)

Publishers Weekly

One of the Washington Post’s 50 notable works of nonfiction in 2017, an Amazon Top 100 book of the year, and a Financial Times and Economist best book of the year

“Timely and informed, providing an important overview of the dynamics in an increasingly interconnected and fragmented planet . . . In his prescient 2012 book, Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent, Luce uncannily anticipated the politics of resentment and the bitter fights over immigration that would fuel ‘Brexit’ and last year’s American election. And in this new book, he lucidly expounds on the erosion of the West’s middle classes, the dysfunction among its political and economic elites and the consequences for America and the world.”—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

“Many around the globe sense a systemic crisis. To understand the nature of this crisis, we could not find a better guide than Edward Luce's The Retreat of Western Liberalism . . . Luce writes in fluid prose, moving from a telling statistic to a striking quotation. Throughout, one is struck by his command of the material and the activity of his prose—he is unsparing in his condemnation of the elites who didn't see this coming.”—Fareed Zakaria, New York Times Book Review

“Mr. Luce offers a useful wake-up call to elites, urging them to focus on the very real struggles of America’s besieged middle class before we all lose the freedom and democracy we cherish . . . [A] concise, accessible and valuable work.”—Lawrence J. Haas, Wall Street Journal

“What the book offers is . . . a panorama of the unravelling world order as riveting as any beach read. Luce’s project is to explain what the recent dark turn in Western politics—the rise of ultranationalism, populist demagoguery, cultural insularity, and social unrest—has to do with global economics. It’s a story of trade balances and technological disruption, but also a withering dismantling of Western liberalism’s faith in progress.”—Elias Muhanna, New Yorker, “What we’re reading this summer”

“A brisk, timely survey . . . Mr. Luce is a shrewd observer . . . At rapid pace and with telling statistics, Mr. Luce . . . gives a knowledgeable tour through the unmapped terrain in which Western politicians and governments must now operate.”—Economist

“Edward Luce provides a terrifying view of the challenges facing the West. We have to hope that his prophecies are self denying—something that is more likely if his penetrating analysis gets the wide attention it richly deserves.”—Lawrence Summers

“Read this book: In the three hours it takes you will get a new, bracing, and brilliant understanding of the dangers we in the democratic West now face. Luce is one of the smartest journalists working today, and his perceptions are priceless.”—Jane Mayer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Dark Money

“The challenges to the West are outlined in detail—and they mainly come from within . . . For Luce, the combination of rising income inequality, vanishing economic mobility and distant technocracy has led to our moment’s populist resurgence.”—Carlos Lozada, Washington Post

“A head-clearing attempt to explore the underlying disorder and distemper in liberal democracy, in America and throughout the West . . . As this author states repeatedly, Trump is merely a symptom, not a cause, of this disorder. For readers looking for context, this primer is a good start.”—Carla Seaquist, Huffington Post

“An informative look at the current state of world politics and economics . . . It’s also a thought-provoking warning that history is not guaranteed.”—Chris Schluep, Omnivoracious

“Important . . . Through his deep reporting and clear-headed analysis, Luce explains popular frustration with liberalism, and the resurgence of nationalism.”—National Book Review, “5 hot books”

“No one was more prescient about the economic malaise and popular resentment that has hit the United States than Edward Luce in his previous book, Time to Start Thinking. His new book, The Retreat of Western Liberalism, broadens that picture to cover the Western world. It is a must read for anyone trying to make sense of the waves of populism and nationalism we face today.”—Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lords of Finance

“What is the future of Western liberal democracy? How did it get into its current mess, and how will those origins shape its forthcoming evolution? This volume is the very best guide for starting to grapple with those questions.”—Tyler Cowen, Founder of Marginal Revolution University

“In just 200 pages, [Luce] surveys economics, history, electoral politics, and international relations to paint a vision of the planet that’s as worrying as it is realistic.”—VICE

“Luce’s well-crafted book locates the origin of the crisis in declining economic opportunities available to Western middle classes.”—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

“[The Retreat of Western Liberalism] is really, really important . . . We strongly encourage you to buy it.”—David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy’s The E.R. podcast

“Luce does a masterful job of describing the contours of the rise of illiberal democracy in the west.”—Benjamin Knoll, New York Journal of Books

“Beautifully written.”—Times (UK)

“The great merit of Luce’s brisk, pointed and fascinating book . . . is that it is far more than a disappointed liberal’s angry tirade. His achievement it to put the rise of antiestablishment populism in a broader global economic context . . . In particular, he is memorably and rightly scathing about the self-regard of the Davos elite.”—Literary Review (UK)

“Timely . . . [Luce’s] writing has a vigour and sweep all too absent in the deadly prose of social scientists.”—Financial Times (UK)

“A succinct and powerful accounting of the global failure of the political left and the subsequent revolt of the people against a system that they see, not without reason, as having failed and abandoned them.”—Toronto Star

“Incisive . . . Luce combines some hard, and unsettling, facts about the ‘stagnant’ state of Western economies and societies, with perceptive, even provocative insights into their implications.”—Vikas Datta, Business Standard

“Timely and thoughtful . . . A clear-eyed lament of liberalism’s decline, and America stepping back and turning inward.”—American Conservative

“Fantastic. I recommend that everyone buys it.”—James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
Financial Times columnist Luce follows up 2012's Time To Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent with this book, which provides a glimpse into his postulation that the current political climate is both a symptom and result of years weakening liberal democracies. Luce's latest work excels in explaining the developmental history of Western democratic societies and challenging notions that this governmental model is durable enough to withstand the economic and political turmoil of present times. Luce drives home his argument regarding the volatility of Western democracies with examples and research broken down into four main segments: fusion, reaction, fallout and, half-life. For those who ascribe to Luce's theories on the current political climate, this just may be the right title at the right time as it weaves its call to action alongside projections concerning the results of the global rise of populism and present U.S. administration. VERDICT Presenting easy-to-comprehend political and economic information, this compelling read will appeal to both academics and general readers with an interest in governance.—Mattie Cook, Lake Odessa Comm. Lib., MI

Library Journal

This audiobook argues that the rise of leaders who are challenging Western commitments to global connectedness, liberal freedoms, and the protection of refugees in both Europe and the U.S. presents the greatest threat to political order and to democracy since WWII. Narrator Julian Elfer delivers this message with conviction, supported by his strong, confident British accent and a firm tone that makes the author’s meaning clear. Elfer also varies his pitch to keep us focused and pauses to let the words sink in. He doesn’t miss a vowel and knows to emphasize the key words and phrases that underlie the audiobook’s main themes. Many books on this topic have been published in the last six months; this one is certainly worth a listen. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile

2017-04-18
Trump, Putin, Kim, Xi: given the current lineup, can the ideals of the Enlightenment endure?Authoritarianism is in the ascendant everywhere in the Western world, with Marine Le Pen gaining momentum in France and, of course, Donald Trump becoming president in the United States. But these, Financial Times Washington commentator Luce (Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent, 2012, etc.) observes, are symptoms of a greater decline. In a trajectory of liberalism that the author traces to the Magna Carta in 1215 and that reigns nearly supreme in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the forces of liberty, equality, and fraternity have splintered, while "belief in an authoritarian version of national destiny is staging a powerful comeback." Luce's case is long on description and laced with useful data—e.g., given that an iPhone is made in nine different countries, Trump's nationalist rejection of trade agreements is both anachronistic and stupid, the more so because—and this is a contentious claim on Luce's part—China is likely to outstrip the U.S. economically in the very near term. China is not the only challenge. The greater danger to the American middle class, writes the author, is artificial intelligence, a machine-driven global capitalism without much regard for the "enlightened self-interest that defined much of postwar America" until the last election. Luce's argument, though meritorious, lacks much rhetorical fire; in the hands of a Francis Fukuyama or Jacques Barzun on the right or a Christopher Lasch or Bernard-Henri Lévy on the left, it might have been more memorably delivered and with more prescription to leaven the description. Still, there are some nicely pithy moments, including his parting shot: "Liberal elites, in particular, will have to resist the temptation to carry on with their comfortable lives and imagine they are doing their part by signing up to the occasional Facebook protest." Learned and well-considered, but if indeed Western liberal values are in danger of extinction, readers may seek more urgency.

Kirkus Reviews