American Politics & its Tradition of Liberal Democracy | James Kloppenberg | TEDxHarvardCollegeSalon

If the United States in the 20th century became a liberal democracy committed to freedom and equality for all, how did a candidate widely perceived as challenging those values make it to the White House? James T. Kloppenberg will address that question by looking at the complex and changing mix of values that have animated our nation’s political life from the outset, showing how history can help us understand our current predicament. James T. Kloppenberg is the Charles Warren Professor of American History and chair of the Social Studies program at Harvard College. His most recent books are Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European and American Thought (2016); Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition (2nded., 2011); and The Virtues of Liberalism (1998). Current projects include “The American Democratic Tradition, 1620-2020,” and “The Long Shadow of William James,” a history of the philosophy of pragmatism from the American Civil War to the present. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx