The Story of American Freedom

"This is a seminal work of historical scholarship. I have met Eric Foner on several occasions and he’s a distinguished professor at Columbia University and has published many books, most of them on the 19th century and some of the key issues of the 19th century. But this book is a survey of American history on the theme of freedom, and how that word has changed in meaning, depending on what period of time we’re talking about. He writes about freedom from the point of view of the revolt against colonial rule in the 18th century, the notion of freedom and the advocacy of ending slavery in the United States, the expansion of freedom to include women in the political life of the country, the ideas about freedom as it relates to who was going to become an American and the freedom to enter this country—a great debate still occurring in the country—as well as the influence of the Cold War when there was the Free World versus the Communist bloc — and how freedom was understood during that period. Then there is the personal freedom movement of the 1960s and beyond, where especially in Western countries—and especially the United States—the idea of personal liberty and personal freedom became very widespread. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . You can see that in debates throughout American history. More recently, there is this notion that freedom has to do with the role of government in our lives. American history is punctuated by these debates about how intrusive we’ll allow the government to be in imposing constraints on our personal liberty. On the other hand, we expect the government to protect us from the encroachments of capitalism or the downturns of the economy. There’s an expectation that government has a role to play in ensuring our freedom as well as the limits of government. And that debate goes on today, especially during our election campaign. There are two central ideas that really characterise American history. Firstly, ‘inalienable rights’ — which are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The second idea is ‘self-government,’ that we are governing ourselves. We are not subject to a monarch or a military dictatorship or a priesthood. We pride ourselves on self-government. But those two ideals come into conflict very often. This is a major theme running through American history and Eric Foner does a marvellous job of documenting that from the beginning of American history to the present."