Scaling the Heights

The Mont Pelerin Society is an august, admired, yet strangely enigmatic organisation. Perhaps that's because it holds no official views, formulates no policies and publishes no manifestos.

Or because it doesn’t publicise the results of its discussions – and doesn’t even seek agreement among its members. So why does this singularly low-profile organisation attract distinctly high-profile members – including distinguished politicians, Pulitzer Prize–winning writers and journalists and Nobel Prize–winning economists?

Perhaps because, for three quarters of a century, it has played a crucial role in the battle of ideas – expanding and deepening liberal philosophy and spreading liberal thought around the world. In Scaling the Heights, Eamonn Butler traces the history of the Mont Pelerin Society. He tracks its formation in the wake of World War II, explores its many internal debates about how ‘activist’ it should become and explains how it has come to provide a unique forum for debate, discussion, study and self-education.

But, above all, he celebrates a Society that, for 75 years, has remained unwaveringly true to its initial vision: to bring together individuals who seek to defend, support and promote liberal values – and to keep the intellectual flame of liberalism burning brightly across the globe.