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To begin, let me quote from a footnote in the introduction (page xiii):

"It is not possible to eliminate all the confusion about the term liberalism. In this book it is used several ways, to describe the views of 19th-century thinkers who were opposed to feudalism and aristocracy and favored, therefore, limited government. It is also used to characterize those who, in the early decades of this century, believed that government intervention had become absolutely necessary, paradoxically, to preserve individualism."

Having succeeded in the introduction to create uncertainty in the reader about one of the words used often in this book, the author then goes on to write at length in generalities. Often firm about the attitudes or reactions of those he writes about, he's rarely forthcoming with relevant facts or explanations of things he references tangentially.

After 4 chapters, I skipped to the end, reading his views on things that have happened in my lifetime, to see if that would clear my confusion. It didn't. This is not a history - the facts are not presented. This seems to be an apologia, but presented so obliquely that I really can't guess the author's purpose. What I did get from this book is a strong urge to find a good history of these times and peruse that - with a clear history of what this author writes about fresh in my memory, I may be able to understand what he's trying to say, and why he's saying it.

This author is clearly wasted in academia - with this command of prose, he should be writing stirring campaign speeches, in which much can be inferred, but little is actually said.

If you have a general suspicion of collective works and are afraid of unequal articles, stay away from this book. I read a lot of political science every year and believe me: this a very confuse book. The article about Italy seems a not well succeeded translation and many others make you think: why to discuss "executive decree authority" in countries like Peru or Yeltsin's Russia? In spite of these shortcomings, the book at least has Brian Sala's article, a very inteligente analysis.