Annelien de Dijn is Professor of Modern Political History at Utrecht University and the author of French Political Thought from Montesquieu to Tocqueville. Her research has been supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, and the Independent Social Research Foundation.
Ambitious and impressive…Explores an alternate history of the
concept from the ancient world to the Age of Revolution to the Cold
War, charting those moments when new notions of freedom—such as
freedom from government supervision or repression—deviated from its
more classical and longstanding definition as self-government… At a
time when the very survival of both freedom and democracy seems
uncertain, books like this are more important than ever, as our
societies contemplate both the heritage of the past and the
prospects for the future.
*The Nation*
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: Human Rights in an Unequal
World*
At once magisterial and finely grained, this is history on the
grand scale. De Dijn succeeds in bringing, with clarity and a
lightness of touch, the weight of the past to bear on freedom and
its fragilities in our own time.
*Darrin M. McMahon, author of Divine Fury: A History of
Genius*
With remarkable sweep and erudition, de Dijn recounts the whole
history of thinking about freedom in the West. In the process, she
also profoundly upends the standard liberal narrative, convincing
us that what we understand by freedom today—namely, the opportunity
to be left alone to do our own thing—is a recent invention. This is
an important book for historians, political theorists, and all
readers who like big ideas.
*Sophia Rosenfeld, author of Democracy and Truth: A Short
History*
De Dijn has written a marvelous book on the history and various
meanings of freedom. Its scope is enormous, its writing elegant,
its insights strikingly original. We will all be reading this book
for many years to come.
*Michael P. Zuckert, author of Launching Liberalism*
A sweeping history of the idea of freedom in the West, from Ancient
Greece, to our time…Shows how the notion of democratic freedom has
developed and deepened…Importantly, de Dijn traces how the Old
Oligarchy—which was overthrown by Athenian democracy—feared the
redistributive power of political democracy. From the time of
Ancient Athens until today, this fear has been a constant in
reactionary thought.
*Jacobin*
For two millennia liberty was conceived as popular self-government.
But nineteenth-century liberals and conservatives redefined freedom
as the guarantee of individual rights against state power, and
democratic equality as a threat to liberty. This timely book
presents urgent and persuasive arguments to rethink liberty and
democracy in an era of fast-increasing inequality.
*Siep Stuurman, author of The Invention of Humanity: Equality
and Cultural Difference in World History*
This book brings remarkable clarity to a big and messy subject, the
definition of freedom in the Western tradition. 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 Matters*
A wonderful book—extremely well written, engaging, and compelling.
De Dijn offers a sweeping history of the notion of freedom across
2,000 years, arguing that identifying liberty with limited
government, the way we do today, is a very modern idea.
*Helena Rosenblatt, author of The Lost History of
Liberalism*
Thought-provoking…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*
Works through the intellectual history of the idea of freedom from
antiquity to the present and puts those ideas in their political
and historical context to show how the idea of freedom was
used…Challenge[s] us to look at our history to better understand
our present and to fight for our future.
*Public Books*
Annelien De Dijn delivers a compelling and accessible analysis of a
highly relevant subject…In a post-pandemic world that has exposed
the fragile tension between individual rights, collective interests
and democratic legitimacy, De Dijn’s plea for a re-evaluation of
our understanding of liberty deserves to be listened to.
*Legal History Review*
Beautifully written…De Dijn’s work is singularly ambitious and
iconoclastic, seeking to restructure a field thick with entrenched
interpretation while sending a message about the necessary reform
of the politics of the present.
*Journal of Modern History*
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