Kevin M. Schultz presents 'Why Everyone Hates White Liberals'

Third Place Books welcomes University of Illinois Chicago history professor Kevin M. Schultz to our Ravenna store for a conversation about his new book, . This provocative read explores how the spectre of white liberalism has come to reflect anxieties across the political spectrum and makes suggestions for how the very liberalism that frustrates so many could become a building block for a healthier political society.

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If there’s one thing most Americans can agree on, it’s that everyone hates white liberals. Conservatives hate them for being culturally tolerant and threatening to usher in communism. Libertarians hate them for believing in the power of the state. Socialists hate them for serving as capitalism’s beard. Even liberals hate liberals—either because they can’t manage to overcome their own prejudices, or precisely because they’re so self-hating.

This is the starting point for Kevin M. Schultz’s lively new history of white liberals in the United States. He efficiently lays out the array of objections to liberals—ineffective, spineless, judgmental, authoritarian, and more—in a historical frame that shows how protean the concept has been throughout the past hundred years. It turns out, he declares, that how you define a “white liberal” is less a reflection of reality and more a Rorschach test revealing your own anxieties.

Sharply assessing how decades of attacks on liberals and liberalism have steadily hollowed out the center of American political life, Schultz also explains precisely what needs to be done to avoid digging ourselves even further into the hole of polarization. The ultimate goal, he argues, is to achieve political fragmentation that will fuel the rise of a true multiparty system, where ideology will matter more, not less.

With a tight command of postwar American history and a spirited voice, Why Everyone Hates White Liberals (Including White Liberals) is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand—and envision a way forward in—the complicated landscape of American politics.

Prof. Kevin M. Schultz is an award-winning historian, professor, and author with special interests in American intellectual and cultural life, writing for both academic and popular audiences. Born in Los Angeles, Schultz lived in Nashville, Salt Lake City, the Bay Area, and Charlottesville, before settling in Chicago, where he now teaches at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), serving as the Chair of the Department of History. He has appeared on numerous occasions on NPR, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and PBS, and been featured in dozens of publications including the Washington Post, Salon, and The Huffington Post. This is his fourth book.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.

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