Toward the light of liberty

the struggles for freedom and rights that made the modern Western world

By Grayling, A. C.

Publishers Summary:
Do we take our liberties for granted at the risk of losing them in the war on terror? Grayling (Descartes: The Life and Times of a Genius), a professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a leading British public intellectual, believes so. This book is, in some respects, an old-fashioned, triumphalist history of the rise of Western liberty since the 16th century (with Martin Luther, John Locke and Elizabeth Cady Stanton playing leading roles), but nevertheless serves as a stirring call to arms to defend freedom from its enemies within and without. Grayling argues that the struggle for liberty has been one of sacrifice and hardship on the part of many heroic individuals. Despite the blood and the violence, it has been worth it. Today's ordinary Western citizen is, in sixteenth-century terms, a lord: a possessor of rights, entitlements, opportunities and resources that only an aristocrat of that earlier period could hope for. But, Grayling somberly writes, the process of losing our inheritance of liberty might have already begun.--From publisher's description.

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ISBN
978-0-80271-636-1
Publisher
New York : Walker & Co., 2007.


REVIEWS

Library Journal

Reviewed on September 1, 2007

A prolific author and media commentator, Grayling (philosophy, Birkbeck Coll., Univ. of London;Descartes ) has applied a lifetime of thought and study to the one of the most important questions of our day: can individual liberty, the "light" that illuminates the path to personal and societal fulfillment, be safeguarded and enhanced in an age of terrorism? Stated otherwise, must we enter a new dark age owing to security measures and i...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

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