Liberal values are the hallmark of a civilised society. Yet they depend on an optimistic view of the human condition, Stripped of this essential ingredient, liberalism has become a hollowed-out abstraction. Tracing its effects through the media, politics and the public services, the author argues that hollowed-out liberalism has helped to produce our present discontent. Unless we stop boasting about our values and try to recover their essence, liberal society will be crushed in the coils of its own contradictions.

"Few academic writers know enough about the business of politics to be able to write intelligently about the tangled links between theory and practice. Garnett is one of the few, and his arresting and often amusing account of the political history of postwar Britain as a transition from fleshed-out to hollowed-out liberalism will be read with profit by anyone interested in the role of ideas in politics." -- John Gray * New Statesman *
"A clarion call to true liberals to wake up and stem the tide." * The Commonwealth Lawyer *
"A stimulating discussion of the nature of modern liberalism." * Network *
"A brainless slab of Leftist bigotry." * Appraisal: The Journal of the Society for Post-Critical and Personalist Studies *
"This essay voices the anger and despair of many who have witnessed the decline of the values the welfare state was laboriously constructed to disseminate ... A spirited polemic." -- Michael Freeden * The European Legacy *