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    • Source: The Vital Center

      • The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom is a 1949 book by Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. It defends liberal democracy and a state-regulated market economy against the totalitarianism of communism and fascism.


      Summary


      Schlesinger's argument runs as follows: modern man has been detached from his moorings by capitalism and technology. Searching for a new solidarity, he finds this in communism, but it has been really a totalitarian military dictatorship run by the Communist Party since Lenin "exposed Marxist socialism to the play of... influences which divested it of its libertarian elements." Instead of this totalitarian road, a strong and interventionist liberalism is needed, New Deal-style, in the tradition of American leadership in the liberal world order and of the national reforms of Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. This would be practical and anti-utopian, and would "restore the balance between individual and community."


      Academic freedom


      Schlesinger writes: The deeper issue is the freedom of the teacher to teach his subject according to his most responsible understanding of it, and not according to the ukase of a board of trustees, a legislature, a political party, or a foreign country. He also stated that "unmolested inquiry is essential." He cites Harvard University president James Bryant Conant: "A free society must dedicate itself to the protection of the unpopular view."


      Editions


      The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1949.
      The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. 1998. ISBN 1-56000-989-6.


      Sources

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