Liberalism is the ordering principal of American government, and yet liberalism is embattled.  After the end of the Cold War, it was widely believed that liberal democracy would spread inexorably, but instead new challenges to liberalism have emerged. Across the world, authoritarian governments flourish and some countries have begun to backslide away from liberalism. Even here at home, liberalism’s critics on the left and right have found renewed strength. This week Adam Gopnik, author of the new book A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism, sits down to discuss the roots and tenets of liberalism and the serious challenges our liberal democracy now faces. Email us at WITHpod@gmail.com Tweet using #WITHpod Read more at nbcnews.com/whyisthishappening RELATED LINKS: A Thousand Small Sanities by Adam Gopnik On Liberty by John Stuart Mill On the Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill How the South Won the Civil War by Adam Gopnik Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices