Walter Lippmann (1889鈥�1974) was among the most influential and wide-ranging political writers in modern America. As both a journalist and political theorist, he shaped ideas about liberalism and democracy, the nature of public opinion, US power and empire, and the roles of journalists, experts, and citizens. Tom Arnold-Forster provides a bold historical reassessment of Lippmann鈥檚 intellectual life, offering fresh perspectives on a career at the intersection of daily news and democratic theory.
This incisive book shows how Lippmann helped define the public debates of American liberalism from the Progressive Era to the Cold War. By exploring his ideas in their historical context, Arnold-Forster challenges the claim that Lippmann was primarily a theorist of expertise and technocracy. Instead, Lippmann emerges as a strikingly political thinker, public-facing and multifarious, who focused on what politics meant and how it worked in modern democracies. Covering subjects from press freedom to urban reform to economic and foreign policy, while tracing the evolution from his early liberal socialism to later conservative liberalism, this book explores Lippmann鈥檚 thought as reflecting the protean character of liberal politics and the crises and paradoxes of democracy.
Walter Lippmann: An Intellectual Biography is a richly historical account of a complex political thinker. Lippmann鈥檚 ideas played a formative role in the twentieth century and resonate powerfully with our fraught present.
"A rigorous and reflective portrait."鈥擜ngus Reilly, Financial Times
"[An] admirable book. It is not so much a defense of Lippmann as a fair hearing for him. The research is excellent, the command of complex ideas apparent, and the style clear and concise—qualities that are all the more impressive for this being the author’s first book."鈥擱ichard Aldous, Wall Street Journal
"A hard-to-top history of not just the man but also the liberalism that he was the most visible figurehead of over the decades."鈥擥erald Howard, Nation
"The book does what it says on the tin: it’s an intellectual biography, well timed for our own period’s tussles with democracy, free speech and new ways of mobilising public opinion…. Lippmann was early to the table when it came to explaining that reality is not a choice one might make, not a thing to opt in and out of as suits your self-interest, but a bulwark against propaganda and censorship, the essential currency of a free press…. Arnold-Forster leaves us to see how this might apply not only to Lippmann’s Cold War era, but also to our own."鈥擜ndrew O鈥橦agan, London Review of 快色直播
"Scholarly and absorbing….[An] altogether fascinating book."鈥擥eoffrey Wheatcroft, Times Literary Supplement
"A new biography by Tom Arnold-Forster offers a salutary challenge. . . the vicissitudes to which Lippmann was responding are still those of our own world. In his time as in ours, an increasingly complex political, economic, and social landscape and an ever-evolving array of media technologies posed fundamental questions about the viability of American democracy."鈥擥eoff Shullenberger, Compact
"Arnold-Forster’s terrific study restores Lippmann to the position that he deserves in the history of 20th century letters and ideas."鈥擬atthew d'Ancona, The New World
"What Arnold-Forster does well in this fascinating biography is to account for Lippmann’s move from a liberalism fostering an enabling state to a conservatism wary of robust progressive movements."鈥擩ames Walter, Australian Book Review
"Tenacious, well-researched . . . Does a masterly job in making Lippmann make sense as a holistic thinker. . . . a fine book for anyone interested in the relationships among journalism, democracy, and practical governing."鈥擲usan Herbst, Political Science Quarterly
"A comprehensive evaluation of Lippmann’s commentary on politics, journalism, and culture. . . . It is an important corrective. Far from an anti-democratic technocrat, Lippmann’s work shows him to be attuned to the complexities of democracy and liberalism. While he insisted on the primacy of the public, he grappled with the problem of creating the context of valuable and trustworthy information that would produce a healthy, well-informed public opinion."鈥擬ichael Buozis, Journalism History
"A clear-eyed assessment of Lippmann as a thinker."鈥擪athryn McGarr, Society for US Intellectual History
"An engrossing, revisionist account of Lippmann as a proponent of democracy. . . . Arnold-Forster’s valuable intellectual biography succeeds in revising our understanding of Lippmann and demonstrating his piercing insights."鈥擯aul Murphy, American Political Thought
"[This book] will change the way Walter Lippmann is understood. It makes significant contributions to the history of American liberalism, the histories of journalism and social science, and the history of international thought—not simply because of the wide-ranging career of its subject, but because of the author’s erudition, fluid and exciting narrative, and well-founded belief that a much-covered figure in U.S. intellectual history was ripe for reexamination."鈥擲am Klug, Society for US Intellectual History
"A welcome addition to the literature of both journalism and the rise of the anti-communist left and modern liberalism. A long-needed biography of a once-influential figure who merits rediscovery."鈥�Kirkus Reviews
“In this magnificent book, Tom Arnold-Forster rescues Walter Lippmann from the pantheon of misunderstood thinkers. Brought to light is the commanding, versatile, and fallible intellect who shaped debates about liberalism, democracy, journalism, foreign policy, public opinion—and yes, expertise—from the Progressive Era through the Cold War. A tour de force and essential reading for anyone interested in the prospects for democracy in the modern world.”—Deborah Cohen, Northwestern University
“With a career spanning six decades and intersecting with every public debate of the day, Walter Lippmann is no easy quarry for the intellectual historian. But he has met his match in this superbly wrought biography. Arnold-Forster gives us Lippmann in all his political complexity—and along the way, new purchase on the dilemmas of modern American liberalism.”—Sarah E. Igo, Vanderbilt University
“Closely tracking the character and reception of Walter Lippmann’s writing, this assertive, often provocative intellectual history is filled with acute judgments about this significant figure. Taking us into Lippmann’s world and evolving perspectives, Arnold-Forster’s unfailingly interesting book illuminates key questions about democratic political culture.”—Ira Katznelson, Columbia University
“What an achievement. Walter Lippmann was a towering figure in American life who has been virtually forgotten today. Tom Arnold-Forster demonstrates what a mistake this has been. By placing Lippmann in his time, Arnold-Forster restores him—brilliantly—to ours.”—Timothy Shenk, George Washington University
