内容简介

L.T.Hobhouse s Liberalism(1911),which has acquired the status of a modem classic ,is the mst enduring statenment of the political principles which animated British liberal social reformers in the early years of the twentieth century While written in a popular style,it is actually a theoretical work of some subtlety,combining an historical analysis of the evolution of liberal doctrine with a philosophical discussion of the character of liberal belief,and proposing a reformulation of liberalism which emphasizes community,individual welfare rights ,and an activist state.
Students of public policy will fmd a text advocating measures that later became central to the modem welfare state;students of ideology willdiscover an ambious attenmpt to adapt traditional liberal beliefs to new circunmstances;and contemporary political theorists will apprehend a liberal variant which contrasts sharply with the individualist,value-neutral forms of liberalism which have been popular in recent decades.
This new edition of Liberalism inclueds a number of Hobhouse s other writings from the same period,which help to defme its place in the development of his political philosophy.