Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals)

A bracing, accessible history of white American liberalsand why its time to change the conversation about them. If theres one thing most Americans can agree on, its that everyone hates white liberals. Conservatives hate them for being culturally tolerant and threatening to usher in communism. Libertarians hate them for believing in the power of the state. Socialists hate them for serving as capitalisms beard. Even liberals hate liberalseither because they cant manage to overcome their own prejudices, or precisely because theyre so self-hating. This is the starting point for Kevin M. Schultzs lively new history of white liberals in the United States. He efficiently lays out the array of objections to liberalsineffective, spineless, judgmental, authoritarian, and morein a historical frame that shows how protean the concept has been throughout the past hundred years. It turns out, he declares, that how you define a white liberal is less a reflection of reality and more a Rorschach test revealing your own anxieties. Sharply assessing how decades of attacks on liberals and liberalism have steadily hollowed out the center of American political life, Schultz also explains precisely what needs to be done to avoid digging ourselves even further into the hole of polarization. The ultimate goal, he argues, is to achieve political fragmentation that will fuel the rise of a true multiparty system, where ideology will matter more, not less. With a tight command of postwar American history and a spirited yet accessible voice, Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals) is a must-read for anyone wishing to understandand envision a way forward forthe complicated landscape of current US politics.