Liberty and freedom David Hackett Fischer

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fischer, David Hackett, 1935-

Series:

Fischer, David Hackett, 1935- America, a cultural history ; v. 3.

America, a cultural history ; 3

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History.

United States.

United States--Politics and government.

National characteristics, American.

Liberty--History.

Liberty.

United States--History--Pictorial works.

Physical Description:

851 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 27 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005.

Summary:

A distinguished history and author of Washington's Crossing analyzes the concepts of liberty and freedom through visions, images, and symbols throughout the folk history of those ideas, showing how they are popular beliefs deeply embedded in American culture rather than political abstractions. Liberty and freedom: Americans agree that these values are fundamental to our nation, but what do they mean? How have their meanings changed through time? In this new volume of cultural history, David Hackett Fischer shows how these varying ideas form an intertwined strand that runs through the core of American life. Fischer examines liberty and freedom not as philosophical or political abstractions, but as folkways and popular beliefs deeply embedded in American culture. Tocqueville called them "habits of the heart." From the earliest colonies, Americans have shared ideals of liberty and freedom, but with very different meanings. Like DNA these ideas have transformed and recombined in each generation. The book arose from Fischer's discovery that the words themselves had differing origins: the Latinate "liberty" implied separation and independence. The root meaning of "freedom" (akin to "friend") connoted attachment: the rights of belonging in a community of freepeople. The tension between the two senses has been a source of conflict and creativity throughout American history.Liberty & Freedom studies the folk history of those ideas through more than 400 visions, images, and symbols. It begins with the American Revolution, and explores the meaning of New England's Liberty Tree, Pennsylvania's Liberty Bells, Carolina's Liberty Crescent, and "Don't Tread on Me" rattlesnakes. In the new republic, the search for a common American symbol gave new meaning to Yankee Doodle, Uncle Sam, Miss Liberty, and many other icons. In the Civil War, Americans divided over liberty and freedom. Afterward, new universal visions were invented by people who had formerly been excluded from a free society--African Americans, American Indians, and immigrants. The twentieth century saw liberty and freedom tested by enemies and contested at home, yet it brought the greatest outpouring of new visions, from Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms to Martin Luther King's "dream" to Janis Joplin's "nothin' left to lose.Illustrated in full color with a rich variety of images, Liberty and Freedom is, literally, an eye-opening work of history--stimulating, large-spirited, and ultimately, inspiring.

Contents:

Introduction: conversation with Captain Preston

Early America: visions of the founders, 1607-1775

Republic united: search for a common vision, 1776-1840

Nation divided: freedom against liberty, 1840-1912

World at war: free society and its enemies, 1916-1945

People among others: global visions of liberty and freedom, 1945-2004

Conclusion: view from Tocqueville's terrace.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 739-818) and index.

Local Notes:

HSP credit line -- Painting: Battle of Princeton by William Mercer (1887.1); Cartoons: "A Peep into the Anti-Federalist Club" and "See Porcupine in Colours just Portray'd"; portrait of Benjamin Lay from the Society Portrait Collection.

ISBN:

0195162536 (alk. paper)

OCLC:

54686077

Publisher Number:

9780195162530

Online:

To view Publisher description