Vital Center, The

With a new introduction by the author The Vital Center is an eloquent and incisive defense of liberal democracy against its rivals to the left and to the right, communism and fascism. It shows how the failures of free society had led to the mass escape from freedom and sharpened the appeal of totalitarian solutions. It calls for a radical reconstruction of the democratic faith based on a realistic understanding of human limitation and frailty.

The Vital Center is an eloquent and incisive defense of liberal democracy against its rivals to the left and to the right, communism and fascism. It shows how the failures of free society had led to the mass escape from freedom and sharpened the appeal of totalitarian solutions. And it calls for a radical reconstruction of the democratic faith based on a realistic understanding of human limitation and frailty.

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. is the author of several fundamental works on American history, including The Age of Jackson, The Age of Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy and His Times, and the Cycles of American History.