The archaeology of American liberalism

Abstract

Few concepts have featured more prominently in the evolution of political science and academic political theory than liberalism. While its place in contemporary conversations is quite evident, the path through which it became a central element in the discursive structure of these fields has been more obscure and often misunderstood. Liberalism is one of a class of concepts that originated in politics but which was appropriated by political science, abstracted, and applied to accounts of politics and political ideas. The so-called liberal tradition is largely an analytical construction that has masqueraded as an historical datum. But although the concept of liberalism may represent a piece of virtual reality, its career reveals a great deal about the history of political science and the relationship between academic and political discourse.