Source: Liberal Currents
by Matthew McManus
“Liberals, socialists and mainstream conservatives all have distinctive ‘canons’ of great authors. For liberals Locke, Wollstonecraft, Mill, Mills, Hayek, Rawls, and Nussbaum are all essential authors. Anyone committed to the free development of each and all draws upon Marx and Engels, alongside Orwell, Bernstein, Tolstoy, Luxemburg, Robinson, Harvey and Fraser. Conservatives have long drawn insight from Burke, Adams, Stephen, Kirk, Eliot, Grant and Scruton. While obviously fluid and, when healthy, expansive the core members of these canons are quite well established and serve as a vital intellectual resource for new generations of liberals, socialists, and conservatives. By contrast the canonical intellectuals of the radical right are far less known to mainstream readers and even political junkies.” (06/03/25)