New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik hopes his new book, "A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism," reaffirms for people that "liberal" is not a dirty word.
"I'm trying to rehabilitate the world 'liberal,' and not just the world liberal, more importantly the liberal tradition, the liberal temperament, and remind everybody how responsible that tradition and that temperament is for so many things that we cling to and value," Gopnik said during an interview on Boston Public Radio Friday.
Gopnik wrote the book for his daughter, who he said became disillusioned by the political system after Donald Trump's presidential victory.
"My daughter Olivia was hideously traumatized by the events of November 2016, and I wanted to give her some affirmation of values that I believed in, and this book is very much that message to her," Gopnik said.
The message Gopnik wants people to take away from his book is that without liberalism, the U.S. would be lacking many of the ideals Americans value.
"Liberalism is the movement for reform that began sometime in the 19th century that is responsible for creating the world we live in, the countries we live in here, the United States, Canada, Western Europe, that with all their vast imperfections are more prosperous, and peaceful, and certainly pluralistic, than any societies that have ever existed before, and we should be proud of that legacy. That is the point of my book," Gopnik said.
