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Cass Sunstein

On Liberalism: In Defence of Freedom

Hay Festival 2026, 

Best-selling author and former White House staffer Cass Sunstein presents an urgent and timely defence of liberalism – what it is, why it is under threat and why we need it more than ever. Besieged from both the right – who hold it responsible for the collapse of traditional values – and the left – who think it lacks the will to tackle entrenched issues of inequality and corporate power – liberalism is facing a crisis moment.

Moving the conversation well beyond reductive political sound bites, the former advisor to Presidents Obama and Biden puts liberalism into context, and argues that we need it more than ever, as the foundation of freedom and self-government.

Sunstein is a professor at Harvard University, and former administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He has been awarded the Distinguished Public Service Medal, the US Department of Homeland Security’s highest civilian honour.