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A collection of interviews with some of the world's leading progressive thinkers on the movement for Palestinian liberation and its connections to struggles for justice across the globe. As more and more people align themselves with the Palestinian people, Palestine in a World on Fire provides the global perspective and analysis needed to inform how we forge ahead on this path of newfound solidarity. Editors Ilan Pappé and Katherine Natanel have gathered a collection of interviews that are intimate, challenging, and rigorous—many of them conducted before October 7th but still startlingly prescient. The interviewees connect the struggle for Palestinian liberation to various liberatory movements around the world, simultaneously interrogating and recontextualizing their own positions given the ongoing aggression in Palestine. This incredible group includes Angela Y. Davis, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, Nadine El-Enany, Gabor Mate, Mustafa Barghouti, Yanis Varoufakis, Paul Gilroy, Elias Khoury, Gayatri Spivak, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian. Palestine in a World on Fire highlights the centrality of Palestine in struggles shared across the world: capitalism, imperialism, misogyny, neo-colonialism, racism, and more. Each conversation tackles urgent events and unfolding dynamics, and the scholar-activists interviewed here provide invaluable perspectives and insights, illuminating the richness and relevance of recent scholarship on Palestine.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A brilliant exploration of freedom—what it is, how it's been misunderstood, and why it's our only chance for survival—by the acclaimed Yale historian and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller On Tyranny“A rigorous and visionary argument... Buy or borrow this book, read it, take it to heart.”—The GuardianTimothy Snyder has been called “the leading interpreter of our dark times.” As a historian, he has given us startling reinterpretations of political collapse and mass killing. As a public intellectual, he has turned that knowledge toward counsel and prediction, working against authoritarianism here and abroad. His book On Tyranny has inspired millions around the world to fight for freedom. Now, in this tour de force of political philosophy, he helps us see exactly what we're fighting for.Freedom is the great American commitment, but as Snyder argues, we have lost sight of what it means—and this is leading us into crisis. Too many of us look at freedom as the absence of state power: We think we're free if we can do and say as we please, and protect ourselves from government overreach. But true freedom isn't so much freedom from as freedom to—the freedom to thrive, to take risks for futures we choose by working together. Freedom is the value that makes all other values possible.On Freedom takes us on a thrilling intellectual journey. Drawing on the work of philosophers and political dissidents, conversations with contemporary thinkers, and his own experiences coming of age in a time of American exceptionalism, Snyder identifies the practices and attitudes—the habits of mind—that will allow us to design a government in which we and future generations can flourish. We come to appreciate the importance of traditions (championed by the right) but also the role of institutions (the purview of the left). Intimate yet ambitious, this book helps forge a new consensus rooted in a politics of abundance, generosity, and grace.

An esteemed activist invites us to consider the complex idea of abolition as much more than a strategy or a set of tactics—at a deeper level, abolition is an entire political framework, culture, and orientationBlending history and political theory and weaving in examples from literature, social movements, and his personal life, this book is a useful resource and primer for those interested in fighting for social justice. Guided by questions like what is freedom?, how do we get free?, and what are the freedom dreams that encourage us and drive us forward?, esteemed activist Bill Ayers explores the concept of freedom in eight essays:Freedom/Unfreedom takes off from the Black Freedom Movement in the 20th Century as a template for social justice movements that followed, and begins to illuminate the idea of freedom in light of what folks come together to oppose.Freedom's Paradox offers examples of a contradiction (from Frederick Douglass to the French Resistance to the Panthers)—even, or especially, in the most dire circumstances, people testify to “being free” at the moment they identify and unite to oppose unfreedom.Social Freedom/Individual Liberty directly takes on the link between the individual and the social when freedom is the question.Freedom, Anarchism, and Socialism takes off from the idea that freedom without socialism is predation and exploitation, and that socialism without freedom is bondage and subjugation.Freedom, Truth, and Repair considers reparations as a necessary step in any honest attempt toward authentic reconciliation.Organizing Freedom is a primer on organizing, strategy, and tactics for freedom fighters.Teach Freedom considers what an education for free people entails.Freedom and Abolition connects an enriched understanding of what freedom entails with an embrace of abolitionist politics.

Unprecedented levels of government surveillance; loss of privacy through corporate data mining; centralized digital currency; behavioral tracking and control: Is this the digital future we've been sleepwalking towards? “Nick Corbishley has the frenetic energy of someone who has seen too much. His book is fantastic.”—Russell Brand, “Under the Skin” podcast Untold millions of people in “democracies” all over the world were barred from accessing basic services in 2021—from earning a living or traveling within their own country—because they lacked proper digital identification surrounding the vaccine. For many, 2021 will be remembered as the year that basic, long-standing bioethical principles such as bodily autonomy, bodily integrity, and the informed consent of the patient ended. In Scanned, investigative journalist Nick Corbishley examines and exposes the lies and overreach that underpin the wholesale erosion of personal freedoms that is continuing to happen at an alarming rate. In clear language supported by rigorous research, Corbishley uncovers how the rollout of vaccine passports, digital IDs and centralized digital currency not only represents an unprecedented violation of privacy and bodily autonomy, but how it perpetuates the idea that a “small” collective sacrifice will allow us to return to normality. Today, digital “health” IDs threaten to go totally global, with the World Health Organization's tacit endorsement. On all five continents governments and corporations are quietly but quickly rolling out digital ID programs. At the same time, 90% of the world's central banks are exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC), with half of them already developing an electronic version of their fiat money. These interlocking initiatives threaten to radically reconfigure the way societies and economies function. If successful, they will facilitate the single largest expansion of totalitarian power in history, exposing citizens to unprecedented levels of government and corporate surveillance, data mining, and behavioral control. The stakes could not be higher. And if things continue on the current path, Corbishley makes clear, getting back to “normal” is never happening. Put simply, instead of a return to normality, we will see the creation of a starkly different form of existence in which most of us will have virtually no agency over our own lives.

A guide for anyone who wants to revive the American dream while the woke mob tries to burn down the country.You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to see that something dark is happening in America. Just look around: Massive corporations monitor our every move. The Thought Police stand ready to cancel any who dare think for themselves. Brainwashed activists openly attack the American experiment. The dystopian future we've been warned of is here. Dave Rubin has been on the front lines of the culture wars for years. Now, he offers tactics you can use to protect yourself from today's authoritarian rule—from resisting the grip of Big Tech to staying sane in a post-truth world. What's more, he offers a vision for the next generation of patriots who will need to face the future head-on, holding fast to their values and creating a meaningful life no matter how frenzied and fabricated the news of the day is. In order for free-thinking people to thrive in this era of woke lunacy, we need to step up and create freedom for ourselves. While exposing Progressive lies and offering practical advice you can employ right now, this book is a call for Americans to live the freest life possible—and a roadmap for saving the greatest country in the history of the world.

Get the Summary of Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Its arguments would go on to shape global economics and influence world leaders in the late 20th century, but Capitalism and Freedom was largely ignored when it was first published in 1962. The first work written for the general public by American economist Milton Friedman, the book argues that a free market with little government interference is the best way to run society. Its ideas were considered to be on the fringes of the economic debate at first, but Capitalism and Freedom introduced a fresh challenge to the dominance of the economic ideas put forward by Englishman John Maynard Keynes. Its theories spurred Friedman's rise to fame and paved the way for the influential body of work that followed. Capitalism and Freedom also inspired Friedman's highly successful book and television series, Free to Choose (1980). These both helped to popularize free-market thinking and made Friedman a household name.

A compelling account of the threat immigration control poses to the citizens of free societies Immigration is often seen as a danger to western liberal democracies because it threatens to undermine their fundamental values, most notably freedom and national self-determination. In this book, however, Chandran Kukathas argues that the greater threat comes not from immigration but from immigration control.Kukathas shows that immigration control is not merely about preventing outsiders from moving across borders. It is about controlling what outsiders do once in a society: whether they work, reside, study, set up businesses, or share their lives with others. But controlling outsiders—immigrants or would-be immigrants—requires regulating, monitoring, and sanctioning insiders, those citizens and residents who might otherwise hire, trade with, house, teach, or generally associate with outsiders. The more vigorously immigration control is pursued, the more seriously freedom is diminished. The search for control threatens freedom directly and weakens the values upon which it relies, notably equality and the rule of law. Kukathas demonstrates that the imagined gains from efforts to control immigration are illusory, for they do not promote economic prosperity or social solidarity. Nor does immigration control bring self-determination, since the apparatus of control is an international institutional regime that increases the power of states and their agencies at the expense of citizens. That power includes the authority to determine who is and is not an insider: to define identity itself.Looking at past and current practices across the world, Immigration and Freedom presents a critique of immigration control as an institutional reality, as well as an account of what freedom means—and why it matters.

A timely manifesto on freedom from Hong Kong's leading pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, a Nobel Prize nominee Activist Nathan Law experienced firsthand the speed with which our freedom can be taken away. When sovereignty over Hong Kong was handed to China in 1997, Hong Kong was guaranteed freedom of the press, expression, and assembly. However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been chipping away at these rights and, since 2014, restricting free and fair elections. Law writes, “When governments control access to information and are able to define the narrative and dictate what we know, we lose more than our freedoms. We lose the ability to see the world for what it is. We lose our humanity.” In 2016, Law became the youngest-ever elected legislator in Hong Kong on a pro-democracy platform and was subsequently imprisoned for his role as a leader of the Umbrella Movement. He now lives in exile. An urgent rallying cry, Freedom warns of the dangers of authoritarianism and inspires us to protect democracy and freedom—or face losing them forever.

What does it mean to be a flourishing human in a Western liberal democracy in the twenty-first century? In Freedom, Progress, and Human Flourishing, Winton Bates aims to provide a better framework for thinking about the relationship between freedom, progress, and human flourishing. Bates asserts that freedom enables individuals to flourish in different ways without colliding, allows for a growth of opportunities, and supports personal development by enabling individuals to exercise self-direction. The importance of self-direction is a central theme in the book, and Bates explores throughout why wise and well-informed self-direction is integral to flourishing because it helps individuals attain health and longevity, positive human relationships, psychological well-being, and an ability to live in harmony with nature.

This book is about how one of the leading intellectual architects of Chinese modernization, Yan Fu (1854–1921), introduced the Chinese intellectual world to the liberalism of John Stuart Mill partly by grasping Mill's ideas, but also by misunderstanding and projecting them onto indigenous Chinese values, which in turn led to criticism and resistance. Rather than bending Western liberalism to the purposes of Chinese nationalism, Yan initiated a distinctively Chinese liberal tradition that became a major component of China's modern political culture. Max Ko-wu Huang is a Research Fellow of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taipei. He specializes in the intellectual history of China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His books include The Rejected Path: A Study of Liang Qichao's Accommodative Thinking and The Raison d'?tre of Freedom: Yan Fu's Understanding and Critique of John Stuart Mill's Liberalism.

Mensch oder Algorithmus – Wer entscheidet im Zeitalter Künstlicher Intelligenz über unsere Zukunft? Überwältigend groß ist schon jetzt die Macht der digitalen Konzerne im Silicon Valley und damit die Bedrohung für Demokratie und Freiheit. Paul Nemitz und Matthias Pfeffer zeigen eindrücklich, wie die derzeitigen Versuche ethischer Regulierung von Künstlicher Intelligenz zu kurz greifen. Nemitz ist Mitglied der Datenethikkommission der Bundesregierung und war maßgeblich verantwortlich für die Einführung der EU-Datenschutzgrundverordnung. Pfeffer beschäftigt sich als freier TV-Journalist und Produzent mit dem Thema Künstliche Intelligenz. Die Autoren bieten eine genaue Analyse und legen dabei den Schwerpunkt auf die Rolle der Öffentlichkeit und die Gefährdung des Journalismus in digitalen Zeiten. Sie fordern die strikte Regulierung Künstlicher Intelligenz und eine Neubesinnung auf das Prinzip Mensch, das gegen das Prinzip Maschine verteidigt werden muss. Ihr Buch schließt mit klaren Handlungsempfehlungen an Politik, Zivilgesellschaft und insbesondere an die technische Intelligenz. Ihr Wissen wird dringend gebraucht, wenn wir dem Zangengriff von Technologie und Populismus auf die Demokratie entgehen wollen.

'Topical, engaging, personable, and above all, reassuring.'-Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, author of 12 Rules for LifeFrom host of The Rubin Report, the most-watched talk show about free speech and big ideas on YouTube right now, a roadmap for free thinking in an increasingly censored world.The left is no longer liberal. Once on the side of free speech and tolerance, progressives now ban speakers from college campuses,'cancel'people who aren't up to date on the latest genders, and force religious people to violate their conscience. They have abandoned the battle of ideas and have begun fighting a battle of feelings. This uncomfortable truth has turned moderates and true liberals into the politically homeless class.Dave Rubin launched his political talk show The Rubin Report in 2015 as a meeting ground for free thinkers who realize that partisan politics is a dead end. He hosts people he both agrees and disagrees with--including those who have been dismissed, deplatformed, and despised--taking on the most controversial issues of our day. As a result, he's become a voice of reason in a time of madness.Now, Rubin gives you the tools you need to think for yourself in an age when tribal outrage is the only available alternative. Based on his own story as well as his experiences from the front lines of the free speech wars, this book will empower you to make up your own mind about what you believe on any issue and teach you the fine art of:Checking your facts, not your privilege, when it comes to today's most pervasive myths, from the wage gap and gun violence to climate change and hate crimes.Standing up to the mob against today's absurd PC culture, when differences of opinion can bring relationships, professional or personal, to a sudden end.Defending classically liberal principles such as individual rights and limited government, because freedom is impossible without them. The Progressive Woke Machine is waging war against the last free thinkers in the world. Don't Burn This Book is the definitive account of our current political upheaval and your guide to surviving it.

Winner of the PROSE AwardAn NRC Handelsblad Best Book of the Year“Ambitious and impressive…At a time when the very survival of both freedom and democracy seems uncertain, books like this are more important than ever.”—The Nation“Helps explain how partisans on both the right and the left can claim to be protectors of liberty, yet hold radically different understandings of its meaning…This deeply informed history of an idea has the potential to combat political polarization.”—Publishers Weekly“Ambitious and bold, this book will have an enormous impact on how we think about the place of freedom in the Western tradition.”—Samuel Moyn, author of Not Enough“Brings remarkable clarity to a big and messy subject…New insights and hard-hitting conclusions about the resistance to democracy make this essential reading for anyone interested in the roots of our current dilemmas.”—Lynn Hunt, author of History: Why It MattersFor centuries people in the West identified freedom with the ability to exercise control over the way in which they were governed. The equation of liberty with restraints on state power—what most people today associate with freedom—was a deliberate and dramatic rupture with long-established ways of thinking. So what triggered this fateful reversal? In a masterful and surprising reappraisal of more than two thousand years of Western thinking about freedom, Annelien de Dijn argues that this was not the natural outcome of such secular trends as the growth of religious tolerance or the creation of market societies. Rather, it was propelled by an antidemocratic backlash following the French and American Revolutions.The notion that freedom is best preserved by shrinking the sphere of government was not invented by the revolutionaries who created our modern democracies—it was first conceived by their critics and opponents. De Dijn shows that far from following in the path of early American patriots, today's critics of “big government” owe more to the counterrevolutionaries who tried to undo their work.

This book examines the concept of liberty in relation to civilization's ability to live within ecological limits.Freedom, in all its renditions – choice, thought, action – has become inextricably linked to our understanding of what it means to be modern citizens. And yet, it is our relatively unbounded freedom that has resulted in so much ecological devastation. Liberty has piggy-backed on transformations in human–nature relationships that characterize the Anthropocene: increasing extraction of resources, industrialization, technological development, ecological destruction, and mass production linked to global consumerism. This volume provides a deeply critical examination of the concept of liberty as it relates to environmental politics and ethics in the long view. Contributions explore this entanglement of freedom and the ecological crisis, as well as investigate alternative modernities and more ecologically benign ways of living on Earth. The overarching framework for this collection is that liberty and agency need to be rethought before these strongly held ideals of our age are forced out. On a finite planet, our choices will become limited if we hope to survive the climatic transitions set in motion by uncontrolled consumption of resources and energy over the past 150 years. This volume suggests concrete political and philosophical approaches and governance strategies for learning how to flourish in new ways within the ecological constraints of the planet.Mapping out new ways forward for long-term ecological well-being, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of ecology, environmental ethics, politics, and sociology, and for the wider audience interested in the human–Earth relationship and global sustainability.

Cutting through the haze of hatred and polarizing politics of our time, The Freedom Paradox offers an unexpected solution to re-unite America. It was the best of times, and it now seems like the worst of times. The chaos, discord and hostility gripping America today are evident to all. The root cause of these woes, however, is not so obvious. Using his keen sense of cultural awareness, Bobby Albert answers the questions that are on our hearts and minds, “What happened to the America of our youth?” and “How can we re-claim it?”. Many are fighting for and celebrating their freedoms, but few realize that unrestrained freedom today results in chaos and constraints tomorrow. Within The Freedom Paradox, readers discover:The “Life and Liberty Equation” and why it's out of balanceThe competing approaches of principle and expediency The contrasts and consequences associated with scarcity and abundance mindsets The impact of what they say and how they say it The root cause of the problems of their great nation and how they can help

John Stuart Mill's resolute dedication to the cause of freedom inspired this 1859 treatise. Discussed and debated from time immemorial, the concept of personal liberty went without codification until the publication of this enduring work which applies an ethical system of utilitarianism to society and the state which to this day remains well known and studied. Mills (1806-1873), a British economist, philosopher, and ethical theorist whose argument does not focus on'the so-called Liberty of the Will…but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual'asks and answers provocative questions relating to the boundaries of social authority and individual sovereignty. He declares that there is'one very simple principle'regarding the use of coercion in society — one may only coerce others either to defend oneself or to defend others from harm. Mill puts forth his basic argument in favor of liberty for the individual as long as it harms no one else. Setting forth the value of liberty of opinion and liberty of action, he emphasizes the importance of individuality versus the'tyranny of the majority'and highlights the positive effects of liberty on all people and on society, as freedom enables progress and prevents social stagnation. He details the appropriate level of authority society ought to have over the individual society's obligation to protect people incapable of exercising their own freedom. On Liberty remains one of the most influential studies on the nature of individual liberty and its role in a democratic society.

Come è stato efficacemente sintetizzato, «se esistessero uomini onniscienti, se potessimo sapere non solo tutto quanto tocca la soddisfazione dei nostri desideri di oggi, ma pure i bisogni e le aspirazioni future, resterebbe ben poco da dire a favore della libertà». Questo volume è un viaggio attraverso pensatori che, nell'accertata ignoranza e fallibilità degli esseri umani, hanno visto la ragione della libertà individuale di scelta. Si sono perciò impegnati a “isolare” le condizioni che rendono possibile o impossibile tale libertà, la cui istituzionalizzazione permette la mobilitazione di conoscenze e risorse altamente disperse all'interno della società, accende cioè un esteso processo di esplorazione dell'ignoto e di correzione degli errori. L'autore si rifà soprattutto a quella tradizione anglo-austriaca che, da Bernard de Mandeville, David Hume, Adam Smith, giunge a Carl Menger e Friedrich A. von Hayek. La prosa è matura e scorrevole. I concetti sono comprensibili, oltre che agli addetti ai lavori, al vasto pubblico. Si percorre così un itinerario che consente di individuare i “motivi” che impongono di allargare, quanto più possibile, il territorio della cooperazione sociale volontaria. Il che limita la sfera d'intervento delle pubbliche autorità, a cui viene attribuita la circoscritta funzione di complemento delle attività liberamente intraprese dai cittadini. È questo l'unico modo per difendersi dall'autoreferenzialità del potere pubblico e dall'utilizzo arbitrario e dilapidatorio delle risorse sociali. Ciò significa che la libertà individuale di scelta sta alla base della crescita e del benessere collettivo. In appendice al volume, vengono raccolti due scritti su Luigi Einaudi, anch'egli esponente della famiglia dei “cercatori di libertà”: il primo riguarda i suoi rapporti culturali con la Scuola austriaca di economia, il secondo il suo progetto europeista.

Die philosophischen Auseinandersetzungen um politische Freiheit im 20. Jahrhundert sind durch eine Frontstellung geprägt. Freiheit wird entweder negativ als Abwesenheit von Zwang oder positiv als Freiheit zur Selbstverwirklichung begriffen. Philipp Schink bietet eine andere Deutung an: Er versteht Freiheit als Eigenschaft von Beziehungen, als eine Weise, im Verhältnis zu anderen zu stehen. Frei zu sein bedeute, wie er in diesem Buch zeigt, nicht der Macht anderer Akteure unterworfen zu sein.

For years, we've been taught that capitalism is good for freedom. Dominant right-wing talk radio hosts to this day recommend “libertarian” classics like Hayek's Road to Serfdom and Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom that claim markets free us, and this picture still dominates the schools and the political spectrum. Well get bent, one percent, because Rob Larson's Capitalism vs. Freedom: The Toll Road to Serfdom puts big business under a microscope. This book debunks the conservative classics while demonstrating that the marketplace has its own great centers of power, which the libertarian tradition itself claims is a limit to freedom. In fact, Larson illustrates how capitalism fails both this and other concepts of human liberty—not just failing to establish a right to a share of society's production, but also leaving us subject to the great power plays of the one percent's corporate property.

Eine faszinierende Sammlung von Schriften rechtsphilosophischen, politischen und soziologischen Inhalts, die uns alle mehr denn je betreffen! Ihre Themen sind vielfältig und umfassen unter anderem die politische und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung in Deutschland und Europa, die Freiheit - insbesondere die Meinungsfreiheit - und die Frage, wer in einer Demokratie eigentlich über Wahrheit und Moral entscheidet. Ergänzt werden die Gedanken des Autors durch zahlreiche ausgewählte Zitate und „Lesefrüchte“, die ebenfalls Stoff zum Nachdenken bieten. Ein großartiges Plädoyer für den „Common Sense“!

Sobre la libertad es uno de los textos esenciales de la filosofía política contemporánea y uno de los más influyentes de Mill, el que mayor número de debates ha suscitado y en el que se defiende la libertad plena de pensamiento, expresión y acción del individuo con respecto al Estado.

In this book, Robert Leeson and Charles Palm have assembled an amazing collection of Milton Friedman's best works on freedom. Even more amazing is that the selection represents only 1 percent of the 1,500 works by Friedman that Leeson and Palm have put online in a user-friendly format—and an even smaller percentage if you include their archive of Friedman's audio and television recordings, correspondence, and other writings. This book and the larger online collection are sorely needed and very welcome. Milton Friedman deserves to be read in the original by generation after generation. These days, many people channel Friedman to support their own views, which sometimes are quite contrary to his actual views. With so much of it now readily available, everyone will find it easier to remember and learn from what he actually wrote and said. Readers will find the book refreshing whether or not they are already familiar with Friedman's work.

The subject of this Essay is not the so-called Liberty of the Will, so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of Philosophical Necessity; but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual. A question seldom stated, and hardly ever discussed, in general terms, but which profoundly influences the practical controversies of the age by its latent presence, and is likely soon to make itself recognized as the vital question of the future. It is so far from being new, that, in a certain sense, it has divided mankind, almost from the remotest ages, but in the stage of progress into which the more civilized portions of the species have now entered, it presents itself under new conditions, and requires a different and more fundamental treatment.

The ideal of freedom is at the heart of our political and economic system. It is foundational to our sense of justice, our way of life, our conception of what it is to be human. But are we free in the way that we think we are? In Creating Freedom, Raoul Martinez brings together a torrent of mind-expanding ideas, facts, and arguments to dismantle sacred myths central to our society—myths about free will, free markets, free media, and free elections. From the lottery of our birth to the consent-manufacturing influence of concentrated power, this far-reaching manifesto lifts the veil on the mechanisms of control that pervade our lives. It shows that the more we understand how the world shapes us, the more effectively we can shape the world. A highly original exploration of the most urgent questions of our time, Creating Freedom reveals that we are far less free than we like to think, but it also shows that freedom is something we can create together. In fact, our very survival may depend on our doing so.

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) is the most important of Britain's nineteenth-century philosophers. His writings and activities were many and varied. The works reprinted in this volume were first published during a particularly prolific ten-year span, from 1859 to 1869. On Liberty (1859), Considerations on Representative Government (1861), Utilitarianism (1863), and The Subjection of Women (1869) are four of his most famous works; they are central pillars on which Mill's high reputation rests. Also included for the light they shed on Mill and his times are two of his lesser-known works – ‘The Contest in America'(1862), written in the context of the American Civil War; and his erudite but accessible Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews (1867). Mill contributed to several contemporary debates, including ones about where to draw the proper boundaries between the ‘liberty of the individual'on one hand and the ‘security of the state'on the other. Living as we do in a world where those boundaries continue to be tested and contested, Mill's timeless writings are of no less value to us today than they were to those who read them when they were first published.

There is a long tradition in Western political thought suggesting that violence is necessary to defend freedom. But nonviolence and civil disobedience have played an equally long and critical role in establishing democratic institutions. Freedom Without Violence explores the long history of political practice and thought that connects freedom to violence in the West, from Athenian democracy and the Roman republic to the Age of Revolutions and the rise of totalitarianism. It is the first comprehensive examination of the idea that violence is necessary to obtain, defend, and exercise freedom. The book also brings to the fore the opposing theme of nonviolent freedom, which can be found both within the Western tradition and among critics of that tradition. Since the plebs first vacated Rome to refuse military service and win concessions from the patricians in 494 B.C., nonviolence and civil disobedience have played a critical role in republics and democracies. Abolitionists, feminists and anti-colonial activists all adopted and innovated the methods of nonviolence. With the advent of the Velvet Revolutions, the end of apartheid in South Africa and, most recently, the Arab Spring, nonviolence has garnered renewed interest in both scholarly publications and the popular imagination. In this book, Dustin Ells Howes traces the intellectual history of freedom as it relates to the concepts and practices of violence and nonviolence. Through a critique and reappraisal of the Western political tradition, Freedom Without Violence constructs a conception of nonviolent freedom. The book argues that cultivating and practicing this brand of freedom is the sine qua non of a vibrant democracy that resists authoritarianism, imperialism and oligarchy.

In Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom, Mary P. Nichols argues for the centrality of the idea of freedom in Thucydides'thought. Through her close reading of his History of the Peloponnesian War, she explores the manifestations of this theme. Cities and individuals in Thucydides'history take freedom as their goal, whether they claim to possess it and want to maintain it or whether they desire to attain it for themselves or others. Freedom is the goal of both antagonists in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta and Athens, although in different ways. One of the fullest expressions of freedom can be seen in the rhetoric of Thucydides'Pericles, especially in his famous funeral oration. More than simply documenting the struggle for freedom, however, Thucydides himself is taking freedom as his cause. On the one hand, he demonstrates that freedom makes possible human excellence, including courage, self-restraint, deliberation, and judgment, which support freedom in turn. On the other hand, the pursuit of freedom, in one's own regime and in the world at large, clashes with interests and material necessity, and indeed the very passions required for its support. Thucydides'work, which he himself considered a possession for all time, therefore speaks very much to our time, encouraging the defense of freedom while warning of the limits and dangers in doing so. The powerful must defend freedom, Thucydides teaches, but beware that the cost not become freedom itself.

The author writes: In this project I set out to provide an answer to two fundamental questions of political philosophy. How can human beings (living, as we do now, in a globalised world) live together, in conditions of co-operation over time, enjoying what Immanuel Kant famously called ‘perpetual peace'? And how much individual freedom can we expect to enjoy, and to what degree can we expect that individual freedom to be equal, whilst engaged in the enterprise described by the first question? These may be age-old questions, but I aim, in this project, to offer a new approach to answering them. In part one of this project, I aim to provide a groundwork upon which an answer to these questions can be built. I argue, contrary to much contemporary (and historical) political philosophy, that the answers to these questions should not be provided by our representatives, a monarch, the elite, or by a process of philosophical abstraction (or anything else) but, instead, by each of us. That is to say, by you, me and everyone else together. Part one argues not only why it should be each of us who are to be engaged in this enterprise, but it also argues on behalf of a number of changes which might support us in this ongoing, and doubtless difficult, human project. I begin by arguing that, if we are to attempt to provide a genuine (and free) answer to how much individual freedom we should each be alloted in human society over time, this means that we must begin with the concept of freedom itself which, in turn, means detaching it from the philosophical and epistemological baggage it tends to carry in everyday language.

Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fourteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

The Founding Fathers wouldn't recognize America today. The God-given freedoms they championed in the Bill of Rights have been chipped away over the years by an ever-intrusive government bent on controlling all aspects of our lives in the name of safety and security. NSA wire-tapping and data collection is Orwellian in its scope. The TSA, BLM, and IRS are all jockeying for control of our lives. Warrantless searches are on the rise and even encouraged in some communities. Free speech, the right to bear arms, private property, and freedom of religion all are under attack. The Constitution has been tossed on the same trash pile as the Bible.From traffic light cameras to phone tapping, from militarized police forces to targeting specific groups of people, the government is unfettered in its desire to control the American people. Police State USA chronicles how America got to the point of being a de facto police state and what led to an out-of-control government that increasingly ignores the constitution and exploits 9/11 security fears to justify spying on its citizens. Stunning new surveillance technology makes it easier to keep tabs on the people. The acquisition by police departments of major battlefield equipment emboldens officials to strong-arm those they should be protecting. The failure of the news media to uphold the rights of citizens sets the stage for this slippery slope. Police State USA tells how we might overcome and recapture our freedoms, as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 194 countries and 14 territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

An enlightening, intensely researched examination of violations of the constitutional principles that preserve individual rights and civil liberties from courtrooms to classrooms. With telling anecdote and detail, Pulitzer Prize–winner David K. Shipler explores the territory where the Constitution meets everyday America, where legal compromises—before and since 9/11—have undermined the criminal justice system's fairness, enhanced the executive branch's power over citizens and immigrants, and impaired some of the freewheeling debate and protest essential in a constitutional democracy. Shipler demonstrates how the violations tamper with America's safety in unexpected ways. While a free society takes risks to observe rights, denying rights creates other risks. A suspect's right to silence may deprive police of a confession, but a forced confession is often false. Honoring the right to a jury trial may be cumbersome, but empowering prosecutors to coerce a guilty plea means evidence goes untested, the charge unproved. An investigation undisciplined by the Bill of Rights may jail the innocent and leave the guilty at large and dangerous. Weakened constitutional rules allow the police to waste precious resources on useless intelligence gathering and frivolous arrests. The criminal courts act less as impartial adjudicators than as conveyor belts from street to prison in a system that some disillusioned participants have nicknamed “McJustice.” There is, always, a human cost. Shipler shows us victims of torture and abuse—not only suspected terrorists at the hands of the CIA but also murder suspects interrogated by the Chicago police. We see a poverty-stricken woman forced to share an attorney with her drug dealer boyfriend and sentenced to six years in prison when the conflict of interest turns her lawyer against her. We meet high school students suspended for expressing unwelcome political opinions. And we see a pregnant immigrant deported, after years of living legally in the country, for allegedly stealing a lottery ticket. Often shocking, yet ultimately idealistic, Rights at Risk shows us the shadows of America where the civil liberties we rightly take for granted have been eroded—and summons us to reclaim them.

In this book, Duncan Kelly excavates, from the history of modern political thought, a largely forgotten claim about liberty as a form of propriety. By rethinking the intellectual and historical foundations of modern accounts of freedom, he brings into focus how this major vision of liberty developed between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. In his framework, celebrated political writers, including John Locke, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Thomas Hill Green pursue the claim that freedom is best understood as a form of responsible agency or propriety, and they do so by reconciling key moral and philosophical claims with classical and contemporary political theory. Their approach broadly assumes that only those persons who appropriately regulate their conduct can be thought of as free and responsible. At the same time, however, they recognize that such internal forms of self-propriety must be judged within the wider context of social and political life. Kelly shows how the intellectual and practical demands of such a synthesis require these great writers to consider freedom as part of a broader set of arguments about the nature of personhood, the potentially irrational impact of the passions, and the obstinate problems of individual and political judgement. By exploring these relationships, The Propriety of Liberty not only revises the intellectual history of modern political thought, but also sheds light on contemporary debates about freedom and agency.

Thomas Paine is most famous for writing Common Sense, a pamphlet distributed during the American Revolution advocating for colonial America's independence from Great Britain. Now, collected here in a beautiful gift book volume are excerpts from this important historical American document, as well as several of his other writings.Paine believed in more than just freedom in the form of revolution and overthrowing governments. He also believed in freedom from oppressive and organized religions and monopolies. Included in this book are passages taken from The Age of Reason and The Rights of Man, as well as letters to George Washington, Benjamin Rush, and Samuel Adams, and pamphlets such as “The American Crisis” and “Agrarian Justice.” Throughout his writings, Paine provides excellent and timeless wisdom on attaining liberty and living a democratic life.

A plan for restoring and protecting freedom, based on the United States Constitution. There has been a deliberate effort over the past one hundred years to change the worldview of Americans from a liberty and constitutionally focused world view, based on the writings of Englishman John Locke, to that of government control of the individual based on the writings of Frenchman Jean Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau's model of state control now dominates government policy and America's world view, and the free market, civil liberties and protections guaranteed by the United States Constitution are being destroyed. The Rousseau world view dominates our education, judicial, media, and legislative institutions with what is called progressivism. This leads to socialism, fascism, and even communism. It is what has inflamed the backlash known as the tea party movement. There is hope, however. Although seriously weakened, the Constitution still stands, and its protections are still in most laws at the federal and state level that offers protections for local communities that are generally unknown to most people—even attorneys. The book explains why Americans are so divided, how the destruction of liberty occurred, who is behind it, and how Americans can stop this destruction of our way of life by electing constitutionally based candidates to office and protect their communities from egregious federal and state laws and regulations.

The freedom to take part in civic life--whether in the exercise of one's right to vote or congregate and protest--has become increasingly less important to Americans than individual rights and liberties. In Public Freedom, renowned political theorist Dana Villa argues that political freedom is essential to both the preservation of constitutional government and the very substance of American democracy itself. Through intense close readings of theorists such as Hegel, Tocqueville, Mill, Adorno, Arendt, and Foucault, Villa diagnoses the key causes of our democratic discontent and offers solutions to preserve at least some of our democratic hopes. He demonstrates how Americans'preoccupation with a market-based conception of freedom--that is, the personal freedom to choose among different material, moral, and vocational goods--has led to the gradual erosion of meaningful public participation in politics as well as diminished interest in the health of the public realm itself. Villa critically examines, among other topics, the promise and limits of civil society and associational life as sources of democratic renewal; the effects of mass media on the public arena; and the problematic but still necessary ideas of civic competence and democratic maturity. Public Freedom is a passionate and insightful defense of political liberties at a moment in America's history when such freedoms are very much at risk.

Against the prevailing interpretations which disqualify a Foucauldian approach from the discourse of freedom, this study offers a novel concept of political freedom and posits freedom as the primary axiological motif of Foucault's writing. Based on a new interpretation of the relation of Foucault's approach to the problematic of sovereignty, Sergei Prozorov both reconstructs ontology of freedom in Foucault's textual corpus and outlines the modalities of its practice in the contemporary terrain of global governance. The book critically engages with the acclaimed post-Foucauldian theories of Giorgio Agamben and Antonio Negri, thereby restoring the controversial notion of the sovereign subject to the critical discourse on global politics. As a study in political thought, this book will be suitable for students and scholars interested in the problematic of political freedom, philosophy and global governance.