"Mahoney covers a vast field with speed, brio, and pertinence, evoking nearly all the great questions of the hour."-Pierre Manent Western democracy has become increasingly estranged from its crucial historical, political, spiritual, and cultural prerequisites-from what author Daniel J. Mahoney calls "the conservative foundations of the liberal order." In this eloquent and insightful work of political philosophy and cultural criticism, Mahoney offers a vigorous defense of these foundations, and shows the dangers of identifying liberty with a radical project of social and cultural emancipation. The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Ordertakes particular aim at partisans of "pure democracy," who have transformed the principles of liberty and equality into an unreflective dogma. Such partisans undermine those "contents of life"-religion, patriotism, philosophical reflection, family and social life-that enrich human existence and give purpose to human freedom. Calling on the wisdom of Winston Churchill, Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, Raymond Aron, and other exemplary leaders and thinkers, Mahoney addresses such issues as democracyrs"s tendency to squander its own inheritance; the task of the democratic statesman; the ties that bind religion and democratic liberty; and the reasons so many intellectuals indulge totalitarianism and terrorism.