- Published: 16 June 2026
- ISBN: 9780241758700
- Imprint: Allen Lane
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 416
- RRP: $59.99
Centrists of the World Unite!
The Lost Genius of Liberalism
- Published: 16 June 2026
- ISBN: 9780241758700
- Imprint: Allen Lane
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 416
- RRP: $59.99
Ambitious ... Wooldridge [is] the Bagehot of our day. His narrative is persuasive, his diagnosis of the malaise of the Western elites is fresh and he offers convincing reasons for believing that "the lost genius of liberalism" will make a comeback. ... [He] wants to rid liberals of their taste for extremism, to persuade them to take populism seriously and take the fight to the autocrats. He denies that liberalism is shallow or banal, as its critics from Carlyle to Houellebecq have scoffed. He has done an outstanding job of making a fresh, compelling case for liberalism
Daniel Johnson, Critic
Wooldridge ... is what you might call a muscular Whig, someone who believes in the idea of progress and liberal democracy as our best shot at human flourishing
Josh Glancy, Sunday Times
In Centrists of the World Unite, Adrian Wooldridge carefully locates a crisis both within and without liberalism. [His] approach is refreshing ... [the book is] entertaining, eerie, and [provides] a piercing look at where societies and economies find themselves — which is, ultimately, quite a mess. There is no doubt that liberalism has found itself at a crossroads ... this [book] enables us to think about how it can recover
Samuel Mace, Critic
For a one-volume history of a rich and complicated subject, you can’t do better
Jonathan Rauch, Unpopulist
Powerful and persuasive ... [Wooldridge has] a vivid way of telling the story of an idea through attacks from outside and betrayals from within .... neatly leads to an account of liberalism’s current retreat and what needs to be done now to revive it
David Willetts, Financial Times
A fine book ... stretches an essential truth over an impressive intellectual range
Philip Collins, Observer
One of the most vividly thoughtful liberals of our time
Michael Morris, BusinessDay