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A rather confusing book for me. I could easily be wrong, but it felt like Capaldi was trying to prove that JS Mill was a forerunner of the American Enterprise Institute or something--basically, a conservative liberal. But the fact that Mill synthesized the 'conservatism' of Coleridge and the liberalism of Bentham has been a commonplace for some time (see: Williams and, before him, Leavis). Capaldi spends a *lot* of time on Mill on Tocqueville, which is fine, but not especially compelling or interesting. Mill has insights into 'human nature' that means we all really want 'liberal culture,' meaning free market capitalism (see, e.g., 267, 283). What on earth is going on here? I want Mill, not Milton Friedman.

Capaldi is right that there should be a good biography of Mill. But this one is a bit too parti pris to be that good biography.