In this compelling and important book, Lisandro Claudio documents the influence of liberal intellectuals in imagining--and building--the Filipino nation. By celebrating the liberalism and cosmopolitanism of Camilo Osias, Salvador Araneta, Carlos P. Romulo, and S.P. Lopez, he butts heads with the "Diliman Consensus" and slays the fathers of nationalist historiography, Teodoro Agoncillo and Renato Constantino.
Claudio is not starry-eyed about liberalism; he is well aware of its limits and contradictions. But he nonetheless argues for internationalism and gradualism as a way forward. He rejects revolutionary shortcuts. This is a timely book--illiberalism and populism are on the rise worldwide. Will liberal democracy survive the current challenges? We don't know, but Claudio makes us better equipped to grapple with this important question.
-Shiela S. Coronel
Dean of Academic Affairs
Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University
By grounding the study in intellectual biographies, and building toward an a posterior definition of liberalism, Claudio succeeds in developing an argument that is dynamic, persuasive, sensitive to the human particulars of persons, time, and place, yet expansive in its appreciation of global interconnections in the idea and practice of liberalism.
-Resil B. Mojares
Professor Emeritus
University of San Carlos-Cebu City
Published in 2017.