How to Be a Liberal The Story of Freedom and its Fight for Survival

'How To Be A Liberal' is an overall well-researched book. Nevertheless, any future reader should be warned about the heavy focus on history. As a keen reader of non-fiction, this book makes one question how much historical context makes a story more comprehensible and how much of it obscures the message that the author is trying to deliver. After an absolutely vital and brilliant introduction about the political situation today the book skips to the year 1619. This will be your starting point for 400 years of history which will mainly focus on retelling the historical situation in Britain and France for the next 200 pages. Exhausted by this, you will encounter the better part of the book - if you made it that far. From the 20th century on the book retells the essential parts of recent history while addressing fascism, communism, war, the rise and fall of our economy, the information war, identity politics and the recent uprisings of nationalism. All crucial topics for understanding politics today. So yes, the book fulfills the promise of its summary on the back. But do I know how to be a liberal now? Or the criteria of liberalism? Not really. In this case, the title is misleading. 'How To ...' implies a clear definition of a matter and how it can be reached. Any important points that are made in the story are lost in all the historical background and so the take-away message of the book turns out to be low. But, if you are a fan of history, this will be a delightful piece of literature for you.