Helena Rosenblatt

Thank you so much for having me.

That's right.

Being liberal really was not just about believing in a certain or working towards a certain political design.

It wasn't just about a constitutional form.

It wasn't just about individual rights.

It was actually more about moral development and about a certain character development that they felt was so very important and that a good constitution should promote.

And many of them thought that, yes, rights are important, but they're important because they allow us to accomplish our obligations.

They're very much concerned with establishing a good, morally good regime.

It's amazing how many of the early liberals were actually moralists at heart.

Liberalism as a word was coined around 1811, 1812, and it was first theorized as a concept.

People start talking about what is liberalism?

Well, liberalism is this, that, not the other thing in the early 19th century in the wake of the French Revolution.

It doesn't become this Anglo-American tradition until very late in the game.

I say middle of the 20th century.

Does it become an Anglo-American tradition?

This was something very exciting that I found in my research.

So I decided to trace the word and the meaning of the word all the way back to ancient Rome, which is ancient.

Liberal in ancient Rome, the root of the word is liber, right?

And the word liber, yes, it means free, but it also means generous, which I thought was so very, very interesting.

So if liberal were really the qualities of freedom, lovingness, and generosity expected of a citizen...