Patrick Deneen: A Primer

“Or is man—like some argue of Odysseus—a restless seeker of new places, people, and experiences?”

The last few years have seen laments and eulogies for liberalism as a political system and ideology, from across the political spectrum. The one thinker and writer who encapsulated this new mood did not come to mourn liberalism but to bury it. With the publication of Why Liberalism Failed in 2018, Patrick Deneen provided the key text in political philosophy for the demise of liberalism: why it died, and why it is not coming back. The appeal of his diagnosis crossed partisan lines, with even former President Barack Obama endorsing Deneen’s work. This book represents a strain of conservatism skeptical of Enlightenment rationalism, which emphasizes individual freedom and autonomy, disregards particularity and contingency, while still freighting liberty with appropriate weight. Deneen’s thought is crucial to our current moment, and this introduction seeks to frame him in our current political and philosophical context.

Background

Patrick Deneen was born in 1964 and was educated at Rutgers University, earning a B.A. in English literature in 1986 and a Ph.D. in political science in 1995. From 1997 to 2005, he was an assistant professor at Princeton University. He was then appointed to the faculty at Georgetown University in 2005 and was the Markos and Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Chair in Hellenic Studies until 2012. He is now Professor of Political Science, holding the David A. Potenziani Memorial College Chair in Constitutional Studies, at the University of Notre Dame. As we can see, his career up to now has been highly accomplished. This is reflected in his work—both academic and popular—in books and various periodicals.

Deneen has published four books, beginning with The Odyssey of Political Theory in 2000, based on his prizewinning dissertation of the same name. Having recently read this work, it is safe to say that this prize was more than well-deserved. His book Democratic Faith was published in 2005, Conserving America? Thoughts on Present Discontents in 2016, and his best-known book, Why Liberalism Failed, in 2018. Alongside these, Deneen has also published in a wide variety of conservative publications. These include First Things, The American Conservative, The New Atlantis and Front Porch Republic (FPR). Deneen helped set FPR up in 2009, with the essay “A Republic of Front Porches.” FPR’s ethos strikes a localist tone, echoing the writing of famed agrarian Wendell Berry. It has been labeled as paleoconservative. Now, however, it would more aptly be seen as part of the nascent post-liberal movement, arguing against ideology and bigness and arguing, instead, for the small, local, and relational. In short, this is a conservatism of limits. This ethos pervades Deneen’s work overall and will be explored further here.