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Like James Madison, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was the most interesting public intellectual of his day and he refined his systematic political thinking during decades in the practice of politics. Greg Weiner's masterful exegesis demonstrates that Moynihan's robust liberalism was informed, but never deformed, by his Burkean sense of the purposes and limits of politics. George F. Will, columnist for Washington Post

"""Like James Madison, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was the most interesting public intellectual of his day and he refined his systematic political thinking during decades in the practice of politics. Greg Weiner's masterful exegesis demonstrates that Moynihan's robust liberalism was informed, but never deformed, by his Burkean sense of the purposes and limits of politics.""--George F. Will, columnist for Washington Post Greg Weiner's fine book helps us understand this complex thinker. He helps us appreciate the man in full without ignoring his subtleties, his ambivalences, and his contradictions. To understand American politics, one should read Moynihan, and to understand Moynihan, one should read Weiner.""--R. Shep Melnick, O'Neill Professor of American Politics, Boston College ""Weiner's subject is Moynihan, but the author's critique is both institutional and theoretical. He provides rich historical insight into choices of political import where both liberalism and conservatism missed critical turns by hewing too closely to ideology, while losing awareness of the realities of public and private life in the United States.""--Perspectives on Politics ""Anyone interested in postwar U.S. political history will find the book enlightening and insightful.""--Political Science Quarterly ""An exceptional book.""--History ""This is at times a brilliant and beautifully written book, which is perhaps not surprising coming from a former speechwriter for various cabinet officers, governors, and members of congress. Weiner offers an incisive examination of Moynihan's thought, but more importantly he has shown us a way to rise above the dysfunctional politics of our time.""--Perspectives on Political Science ""[A]n excellent short book on Moynihan, rightly comparing his thought and career with those of Edmond Burke.""--Chronicles ""By taking seriously the thinking of a scholar-politician who transcended the contours of our political divide, Greg Weiner illuminates possibilities for American politics that have been lost with Daniel Patrick Moynihan's passing.""--Public Discourse ""Weiner successfully insulates Moynihan's thought from simplistic labels while exploring a fruitful connection to Burke; such connections to American political thought are welcome at a time when Burke scholarship is exploding.""--Choice ""A sharply etched précis, dedicated both to reminding us of the range of the late senator's intellectual contributions and to reconciling the seemingly contrary strains in Moynihan's politics.""--American Prospect ""Weiner describes how Moynihan distinguished between two types of liberalism. Pluralist liberalism, with which Moynihan identified, emphasized situation and circumstance in making policy. This was the position, Moynihan wrote, 'held by those, who with Edmund Burke . . . believe that in . . . the strength of . . . voluntary associations--church, family, club, trade union, commercial association--lies much of the strength of democratic society.' But Moynihan saw another kind of liberalism developing, one caught up in an 'overreliance upon the state.' This statist liberalism produced the bureaucratic ""chill"" that 'pervades many of our government agencies' and has helped produce 'the awesome decline of citizen participation in our elections.'""--City Journal ""[Readers will] be charmed and interested by the wit and insight on display in [American Burke]--Open Letters Monthly"

Anyone interested in postwar U.S. political history will find the book enlightening and insightful. --Political Science Quarterly An exceptional book. --History This is at times a brilliant and beautifully written book, which is perhaps not surprising coming from a former speechwriter for various cabinet officers, governors, and members of congress. Weiner offers an incisive examination of Moynihan's thought, but more importantly he has shown us a way to rise above the dysfunctional politics of our time. --Perspectives on Political Science [A]n excellent short book on Moynihan, rightly comparing his thought and career with those of Edmond Burke. --Chronicles By taking seriously the thinking of a scholar-politician who transcended the contours of our political divide, Greg Weiner illuminates possibilities for American politics that have been lost with Daniel Patrick Moynihan's passing. --Public Discourse Weiner successfully insulates Moynihan's thought from simplistic labels while exploring a fruitful connection to Burke; such connections to American political thought are welcome at a time when Burke scholarship is exploding. --Choice A sharply etched pr�cis, dedicated both to reminding us of the range of the late senator's intellectual contributions and to reconciling the seemingly contrary strains in Moynihan's politics. --American Prospect Weiner describes how Moynihan distinguished between two types of liberalism. Pluralist liberalism, with which Moynihan identified, emphasized situation and circumstance in making policy. This was the position, Moynihan wrote, held by those, who with Edmund Burke . . . believe that in . . . the strength of . . . voluntary associations--church, family, club, trade union, commercial association--lies much of the strength of democratic society. But Moynihan saw another kind of liberalism developing, one caught up in an overreliance upon the state. This statist liberalism produced the bureaucratic chill that pervades many of our government agencies and has helped produce the awesome decline of citizen participation in our elections. --City Journal [Readers will] be charmed and interested by the wit and insight on display in [American Burke]--Open Letters Monthly Like James Madison, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was the most interesting public intellectual of his day and he refined his systematic political thinking during decades in the practice of politics. Greg Weiner's masterful exegesis demonstrates that Moynihan's robust liberalism was informed, but never deformed, by his Burkean sense of the purposes and limits of politics. --George F. Will, columnist for Washington PostGreg Weiner's fine book helps us understand this complex thinker. He helps us appreciate the man in full without ignoring his subtleties, his ambivalences, and his contradictions. To understand American politics, one should read Moynihan, and to understand Moynihan, one should read Weiner. --R. Shep Melnick, O'Neill Professor of American Politics, Boston College

Like James Madison, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was the most interesting public intellectual of his day and he refined his systematic political thinking during decades in the practice of politics. Greg Weiner's masterful exegesis demonstrates that Moynihan's robust liberalism was informed, but never deformed, by his Burkean sense of the purposes and limits of politics. <b>George F. Will</b>, columnist for <i>Washington Post</i>

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Greg Weiner is assistant professor of political science at Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He is the author of Madison's Metronome: The Constitution, Majority Rule and the Tempo of American Politics.

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