{"product_id":"equality-of-permission","title":"Equality of Permission","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom a revered public intellectual, an essential argument for the political preconditions of a liberal society. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLiberalism has always suffered from messaging challenges. It simultaneously implies a pursuit of individual liberty \u003ci\u003eand \u003c\/i\u003esocial equality, two projects often regarded as at odds. Or: \u003ci\u003eLiberal \u003c\/i\u003emeans the opposite of \u003ci\u003econservative\u003c\/i\u003e. Except when it doesn’t. The list goes on. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLiberal bard Deirdre Nansen McCloskey understands these rhetorical troubles. \u003ci\u003eEquality of Permission\u003c\/i\u003e is her stirring and career-defining intervention on this essentially contested yet critical topic—a forceful case for liberalism as our best hope, and an essential vision of the political conditions necessary for its survival. McCloskey prescribes a liberalism built around liberty from the bottom up: “equality before the law and equality of political and economic permissions,” lightly administered.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe state, McCloskey argues, is increasingly the source of our discontents—an illiberal institution, hindered by a quixotic fixation on pursuing equality of wealth or opportunity. \u003ci\u003eEquality of Permission \u003c\/i\u003eevangelizes for a better, and earlier, version of liberalism—that of John Locke, Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Henry David Thoreau—as against a top-down quest for an unattainable utopia. McCloskey shows that statism in pursuit of a chimerical general will, even when well-intentioned, leads to tyranny.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrimming with energy and erudition, drawing on wisdoms from Alexis de Tocqueville to Mae West, \u003ci\u003eEquality of Permission\u003c\/i\u003e is McCloskey at the peak of her powers—brilliant, lacerating, garrulous, funny, worldly, and warm. Amid intense debate over the use and abuse of government institutions, McCloskey shares her singular vision for a true democracy, one grounded in respect and conducive to universal human flourishing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57349304680792,"sku":"9780226852393","price":27.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780226852393.jpg?v=1781057729","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/equality-of-permission","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}