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Louise Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America: An Appraisal*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Marvin Meyers
Marvin Meyers
Affiliation:
The College University of Chicago
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Extract

The Liberal Tradition in America, by Louis Hartz, appeared in 1955. Since then it has taken a place among those few recent essays interpreting the course of American political thought that deserve our serious consideration. One thinks of works by Hofstadter, Boorstin, and Rossiter as comparable examples of the genre. In examining Professor Hartz's book, or any of its counterparts, I cannot believe that it would be useful or proper to assume the solemn office of a high tribunal, weighing the merits of a candidate for immortality. Classics declare themselves in their own good time. To treat an interesting contemporary discussion as an established masterpiece would be to sink the book under a punitive burden.

Type
Comparative Study in American History
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , April 1963 , pp. 261 - 268
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1963

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References

1 Hartz, Louis, The Liberal Tradition in America (New York, 1955), p. 28.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., pp. 4–5.

3 Ibid., pp. 147, 175.

4 Ibid., pp. 175–176.

5 deTocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America (Vintage Edition, New York), Vol. II, p. 352.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 119N, 158, 280.

7 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 97.

8 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 211–12.