Adaptation or Abandonment?
This review essay was originally published on September 14, 2015. Reading a political classic can reveal not only how much has changed over time, but how many ideas and controversies persist mostly unchanged into our own day. Both of these lessons are on display in James Burnham’s jeremiad The Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism (1964), whose republication last year marking its 50-year anniversary has much to teach contemporary liberals and conservatives alike—though I dare say only conservatives will pay it any attention, and all too few at that. One of the architects of post-World…
