Testing Tensions: Liberalism’s Antinomies

The tension between libertyliberty and equalityequality as well as the different ways to interpret the pursuit of happinesspursuit_of_happiness are not unique to twenty-first-century politics. This beginning chapter will act as a primer to its foundations in American industrialization, paying particular attention to the Gilded AgeGilded_Age and the ProgressiveProgressive movement. It will engage with President Theodore RooseveltTheodore_Roosevelt, who Franklin D. RooseveltRoosevelt will go on to critique in his own presidency as not doing enough to prioritize liberty. This chapter will lay the foundations for what will later become my overall critique of liberalismliberalism—it lacks a language and theory of needs.