In Beyond Nihilism, Michael Polanyi argued that a merely liberty of doing as one pleases so long as one does not impinge upon the equal liberty of others--must has led to destructive nihilism a fierce reaction to collectivism. R.T. Allen takes up this argument in Beyond Liberalism, and shows how Polanyi's political philosophy evolved into a more distinctly conservative concept of liberty, converging upon the archetypal conservatism of Edmund Burke. Allen examines Polanyi's F.A. Hayek's thinking with respect to the nature, value, foundations of liberty. Negative positive liberties are two sides of one liberty, Allen believes negative conceptions of liberty are as dangerous as positive ones. He distinguishes among general abstract definitions of liberty shows how all, including that of Hayek, ultimately dissolve. According to Allen, only tacit conceptions of liberty, such as those of Burke Polanyi, prove viable. This is because they rest on concrete tradition. Allen examines how the skeptical, rationalist, utilitarian philosophies of Ludwig von Mises Sir Karl Popper fail to support the value of liberty even proved to be destructive of it. Allen argues that society cannot rely upon the classically liberal notion of contract but rather upon prescriptive inherited obligations. In turn, this means that citizens have positive, as well as negative, duties to each other the body politic of which they are part upon whose support liberty depends. A free society is held together by emotional bonds the traditions rituals that sustain them. A free society also presupposes that the individual has inherent value in for himself. For R.T. Allen, only Christianity, certainly no modern philosophy, has a conception of the unique individual his irreplaceable value of a political order that transcends itself into the moral order. Even Polanyi's liberty is ultimately insufficient, for it gives no inherent value to the person himself but instead to the ideals which he serves. Beyond Liberalism challenges deeply ingrained notions of liberty its meaning in modern society. It is a call for traditions of self-restraint justice for their own sakes. This noteworthy volume is an essential addition to the libraries of political scientists, philosophers, theologians alike.