The Liberal Consensus Reconsidered - by Robert Mason & Iwan Morgan

About the Book

Here, leading scholars--including Hodgson himself--confront the longstanding theory that a liberal consensus shaped the United States after World War II. The essays draw on fresh research to examine how the consensus related to key policy areas, how it was viewed by different factions and groups, what its limitations were, and why it fell apart in the late 1960s.

Book Synopsis

When first published in 1976, Godfrey Hodgson's America in Our Time won immediate recognition as a major interpretive study of the postwar era. In The Liberal Consensus Reconsidered, leading scholars--including Hodgson himself--confront his long-standing theory that a "liberal consensus" shaped the United States after World War II. These essays offer new insights into the era and diverging opinions on one of the most influential interpretations of mid-twentieth-century U.S. history.

Review Quotes

"Contributors offer a broad range of insights into Hodgson's thesis, considering it in the context of historiography, its roots in the 1930s, and its relation to Keynesian thought and policy. . . . Essential."--Choice "An excellent series of essays on the concept of the 'liberal consensus.' . . . Provocative, thoughtful, and persuasive."--Journal of American History