Uncertain Legacy: Essays on the Pursuit of Liberty - Softcover

Comprehensive and Historical Essays on the Idea of Liberty
Liberty is today a passion felt round the world. Men are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in its defense, and yet our hold on freedom’s fruits, always tenuous, is today threatened by intellectual chaos. From its birth in the minds of the ancient West, the idea from which this passion springs has been both trampled and triumphant in the ensuing centuries. An Uncertain Legacy brings together ten of today’s leading thinkers, including Ralph McInerny, J. Rufus Fears, Timothy Fuller, George Carey, and William B. Allen -- scholars who have devoted their lives to the study of liberty. In charting the intellectual pilgrimage of an idea, these authors transport us from liberty’s Roman exemplars and medieval philosophers to its treatment in every subsequent period down to our own day. A final essay by noted political theorist John Gray examines the legacy of liberty in the twentieth century in light of the work of F.A. Hayek. An Uncertain Legacy seeks to remind us that the attainment of freedom is not a birthright we deserve but a privilege we earn. Difficult to attain, it is easily lost.