I'm no expert in UK political history by any stretch, and like you mentioned, what much of what I do know is in relation to the U.S. However, when you say

...nineteenth century liberalism argued precisely for the centrality of a strong and powerful state.

I must disagree. What of the Liberal Party, which included notable members such as Lord Acton, PM William Gladstone, or Sir William Harcourt? They advocated limited government, free markets, and individual liberty. Only towards the late 1800's did "new" liberalism start supplanting what had always been liberalism (what eventually became classical liberalism).

But regardless of all that, the [url=http://clipmar...

I'm no expert in UK political history by any stretch, and like you mentioned, what much of what I do know is in relation to the U.S. However, when you say

...nineteenth century liberalism argued precisely for the centrality of a strong and powerful state.

I must disagree. What of the Liberal Party, which included notable members such as Lord Acton, PM William Gladstone, or Sir William Harcourt? They advocated limited government, free markets, and individual liberty. Only towards the late 1800's did "new" liberalism start supplanting what had always been liberalism (what eventually became classical liberalism).

But regardless of all that, the different facets of liberalism seem to come down to the value, definition, and application of liberty, obviously. The term seems clear enough on its own, but of course things are never that simple.

You're quite right about the Gladstone period, especially regarding economic policy. Perhaps the shift is most evident in the last two decades of the nineteenth century but signs were there before. I think to a large extent the later liberalism was reflecting and synthesising broader cultural changes, as was the formation of the Labour party rooted in the same period (rooted, of course, still in religion and not marxism). It is indeed not simple but I think there was no sudden shift between 'classical liberalism' and modern liberalism. Of course, too, the word 'liberal' has different connotations and histories here than in the States: certainly 'New Labour' has more in common with Liberalism...

You're quite right about the Gladstone period, especially regarding economic policy. Perhaps the shift is most evident in the last two decades of the nineteenth century but signs were there before. I think to a large extent the later liberalism was reflecting and synthesising broader cultural changes, as was the formation of the Labour party rooted in the same period (rooted, of course, still in religion and not marxism). It is indeed not simple but I think there was no sudden shift between 'classical liberalism' and modern liberalism. Of course, too, the word 'liberal' has different connotations and histories here than in the States: certainly 'New Labour' has more in common with Liberalism than socialism. Anyway, if you get a chance do have a look at Culture and Anarchy, It's in part an essay of a 'new' (later nineteenth century) liberal and the older 'classical' liberalism. And btw I don't know much about it anyway!

btw, have just looked at it again. The introduction and preface can be skipped (they refer to specific political personages at the time, 1869). Here is a taster from Chapter 2:

"Our prevalent
notion is,--and I quoted a [55] number of instances to prove it,--
that it is a most happy and important thing for a man merely to be
able to do as he likes. On what he is to do when he is thus free to
do as he likes, we do not lay so much stress. Our familiar praise of
the British Constitution under which we live, is that it is a system
of checks,--a system which stops and paralyses any power in
interfering with the free action of individuals. To this effect Mr.
Bright, who loves to walk in the old...

btw, have just looked at it again. The introduction and preface can be skipped (they refer to specific political personages at the time, 1869). Here is a taster from Chapter 2:

"Our prevalent
notion is,--and I quoted a [55] number of instances to prove it,--
that it is a most happy and important thing for a man merely to be
able to do as he likes. On what he is to do when he is thus free to
do as he likes, we do not lay so much stress. Our familiar praise of
the British Constitution under which we live, is that it is a system
of checks,--a system which stops and paralyses any power in
interfering with the free action of individuals. To this effect Mr.
Bright, who loves to walk in the old ways of the Constitution, said
forcibly in one of his great speeches, what many other people are
every day saying less forcibly, that the central idea of English life
and politics is the assertion of personal liberty. ...

Meanwhile, our social machine is a little out
of order; there are a good many people in our paradisiacal centres of
industrialism and individualism taking the bread out of one another's
mouths; the rioter has not yet quite found his groove and settled
down to his work, and so he is just asserting his personal liberty a
little, going where he likes, assembling where he likes, bawling as
he likes, hustling as he likes. Just as the rest of us,--as the
country squires in the aristocratic class, as the political
dissenters in the middle-class,--he has no idea of a State, of the
nation in its collective and corporate character controlling, as
government, the free swing of this or that one of its ...

Meanwhile, our social machine is a little out
of order; there are a good many people in our paradisiacal centres of
industrialism and individualism taking the bread out of one another's
mouths; the rioter has not yet quite found his groove and settled
down to his work, and so he is just asserting his personal liberty a
little, going where he likes, assembling where he likes, bawling as
he likes, hustling as he likes. Just as the rest of us,--as the
country squires in the aristocratic class, as the political
dissenters in the middle-class,--he has no idea of a State, of the
nation in its collective and corporate character controlling, as
government, the free swing of this or that one of its members in the
name of the higher reason of all of them, his own as well as that of
others."