The Transformation of Urban Liberalism: Bertrand Russell Bites the Dust

Liberalism in American politics has been around at least since Thomas Jefferson.

But—as many times in the past—today’s liberal is not your granddaddy’s garden variety.

A case in point is the contrast between two New York City mayors: Bill de Blasio, a champion of gay rights whose multiracial, multicultural family was among his chief selling points in the 2013 mayoral election; and Fiorello H. La Guardia, who occupied Gracie Mansion from 1933 until 1945 and is still considered by most observers as Gotham’s greatest mayor.

In October, 1939, as the Nazis closed down academic freedom in German universities, the City College of New York offered a teaching appointment to the renowned, freethinking philosopher Bertrand Russell. In two of his many books—“Education and the Good Life” and “Marriage and Morals”—Russell had advocated childless marriages, argued that sexual practices should be a strictly private matter, and gave his blessing to adultery. As to Christianity, he wrote: “Throughout its history, it has been a force tending toward mental disorders and unwholesome views of life.”

Mayor La Guardia responded to pressure from New York’s Catholic hierarchy by rhetorically asking the Board of Higher Education: “Why is it that we always select someone with a boil on his neck or a blister on his fanny?” La Guardia protested that “I am not a prude,” but he wanted the appointment of Russell—whom he considered “damaged goods”—rescinded: and he got his way.

Justice John E. McGeehan—who had tried to have removed from a city mural a picture of Martin Luther—condemned the Russell appointment as “a salacious and indecent” act by a Board of Higher Education committed to establishing “in effect a chair of indecency.”

On the other hand, critics including John Dewey pleaded with La Guardia to change his position because: “Should a man with your record in a free country do to CCNY” what the Nazis have done at Heidelberg and Bonn.

Today, most human rights advocates would probably be embarrassed by this episode in liberal history. But whatever one’s preferences in mayors, there is no doubt that political liberalism, exemplified by New York City, has undergone a sea change since World War II.