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Title: The Retreat of Western Liberalism; Author: Edward Luce; Publisher: Little, Brown/Hachette India; Pages: 240; Price: Rs 599 "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness," begins Charles Dickens' French Revolution drama "A Tale of Two Cities" -- it could well describe our present times where people mourn or celebrate the re-creation of barriers and majoritarian, intolerant "democracies". The appetite for globalisation, whose triumph was extolled till recently, is steadily diminishing with free trade and immigration inviting suspicion, if not hostility. And liberal democracies,…