The Propriety Of Liberty

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.

The American Idea of Freedom describes the early American and Constitutional concept of liberty as understood by the nation's Founders and relates it to current notions of freedom in this country. The book shows that much of the political and cultural turmoil that surrounds us today can be traced to a faulty understanding of freedom. Whereas popular ideas today center on the pursuit of individual advancements and the rights of self-expression, early Americans viewed independence much more in terms of private property rights and genuine educational opportunities. The Founders laid heavy emphasis on these two fundamentals because Constitutional liberties are built on them and are threatened by inattention to their importance. The framework of government they created foresaw many of our current political and social difficulties and was designed to prevent them. They knew that the freedom they envisioned could be achieved and maintained only by vigilant attention to property rights and quality general education of the citizenry. We are slowly losing contact with their idea of liberty and are moving toward some undefined form of social and political life not in keeping with our American constitutional heritage. The unique spirit of freedom known in America since its beginnings is being seriously threatened by these recent developments. If we want that spirit to survive we must become aware of the implications of these developments, and then recover and act upon the principles of freedom so well articulated by early American leaders.

Sweet Land of Liberty is Thomas J. Sugrue’s epic account of the abiding quest for racial equality in states from Illinois to New York, and of how the intense northern struggle differed from and was inspired by the fight down South. Sugrue’s panoramic view sweeps from the 1920s to the present–more than eighty of the most decisive years in American history. He uncovers the forgotten stories of battles to open up lunch counters, beaches, and movie theaters in the North; the untold history of struggles against Jim Crow schools in northern towns; the dramatic story of racial conflict in northern cities and suburbs; and the long and tangled histories of integration and black power. Filled with unforgettable characters and riveting incidents, and making use of information and accounts both public and private, such as the writings of obscure African American journalists and the records of civil rights and black power groups, Sweet Land of Liberty creates an indelible history.

The State is a brilliant analysis of some of the fundamental issues of modern political thought from the perspective, not of individuals or subjects, but of the state itself. The author poses the query, "What would you do if you were the state?" The state usually is understood as an instrument, not a personality, and it is presumed to exist so that people can achieve their common ends. However, Jasay asks, what if we suppose the state to have a will and ends of its own? To answer these questions, the author traces the logical and historical progression of the state from a modest-sized protector of life and property through its development into an "agile seducer of democratic majorities, to the welfare-dispensing drudge that it is in many countries today ... Is the rational next step a totalitarian enhancement of its power?" The State presents what has been termed "a disturbingly logical 'agenda' for the state in pursuit of its 'self-fulfillment.'"--Inside jacket flap.

The formation of the modern state, the rise of capitalism, the Renaissance and Reformation, the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment have all been attributed to the “early modern” period. Nearly everything about its history remains controversial, but one thing is certain: it left a rich and provocative legacy of political ideas unmatched in Western history. The concepts of liberty, equality, property, human rights and revolution born in those turbulent centuries continue to shape, and to limit, political discourse today. Assessing the work and background of figures such as Machiavelli, Luther, Calvin, Spinoza, the Levellers, Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, Ellen Wood vividly explores the ideas of the canonical thinkers, not as philosophical abstractions but as passionately engaged responses to the social conflicts of their day.

The Declaration of Independance written by Thomas Jefferson is perhaps the most famous document describing the unique character of the American experiment. It suggests a most profound concept of human endeavors and the human rights the founders held to be unalienable. This is a book touching briefly but poignantly on these profound rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, rounded out by an in depth analysis of the rights of Property. All of these are unalienable rights given to man by God not with the intention of being taken away by man. It is a fierce defense of these freedoms and rights and shows how and why they were given to man and why they must be preserved and freely practiced. And finally, there is a connection between God and man related to man's origin and eternal destiny and how these rights (blessings really) are entwined in man's pursuit of happiness and how they involve and include all men no matter where they live.

The U.S. Constitution found in school textbooks and under glass in Washington is not the one enforced today by the Supreme Court. In Restoring the Lost Constitution, Randy Barnett argues that since the nation's founding, but especially since the 1930s, the courts have been cutting holes in the original Constitution and its amendments to eliminate the parts that protect liberty from the power of government. From the Commerce Clause, to the Necessary and Proper Clause, to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, to the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court has rendered each of these provisions toothless. In the process, the written Constitution has been lost. Barnett establishes the original meaning of these lost clauses and offers a practical way to restore them to their central role in constraining government: adopting a "presumption of liberty" to give the benefit of the doubt to citizens when laws restrict their rightful exercises of liberty. He also provides a new, realistic and philosophically rigorous theory of constitutional legitimacy that justifies both interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning and, where that meaning is vague or open-ended, construing it so as to better protect the rights retained by the people. As clearly argued as it is insightful and provocative, Restoring the Lost Constitution forcefully disputes the conventional wisdom, posing a powerful challenge to which others must now respond. This updated edition features an afterword with further reflections on individual popular sovereignty, originalist interpretation, judicial engagement, and the gravitational force that original meaning has exerted on the Supreme Court in several recent cases.

Excerpt from On Liberty Tim time, it is to be he d, is gone by, when any defence woulsebe necessary of WW as one of the securities against corrupt or tyran nical government. No ar tment, we may suppose, can now E; needed, against permitting a le °slature or an executive, not identified1 in interest with the peo le, to prescribe opinions to them, and etermine what doctrines or what arguments they shall be al lowed to hear. This aspect of the question, besides, has been so often and so triumphantly enforced b preceding writers that it needs not specially insisted on in this place. Though the law of England, on the subject of the press, is as servile to this day as it was in the time of the Tudors, there is little danger of its being actually put in force against political discussion, except dur ing some temporary panic, when fear of insurrection drives ministers and judges from their propriety and. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.