A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebels, Reactionaries, and the Making of American Freedom

By Jedediah Purdy

Book Overview

In A Tolerable Anarchy , Jedediah Purdy traces the history of the American understanding of freedom, an ideal that has inspired the country's best--and worst--moments, from independence and emancipation to war and economic uncertainty. Working from portraits of famous American lives, like Frederick Douglas and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Purdy asks crucial questions about our relationship to liberty: Does capitalism perfect or destroy freedom? Does freedom mean following tradition, God's word, or one's own heart? Can a nation of individuals also be a community of citizens? This is history that speaks plainly to our lives today, urging readers to explore our understanding of our country and ourselves, and a provocative look at one of America's cherished principles.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400095840
• ISBN13: 9781400095841
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.56 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Freedom explained

This is a beautifully written book that includes interesting history, abstract ideas, and real applications of the ideas. The author describes the contradictions and complexities of the concept of freedom -- which for me had become a meaningless word that is too freely thrown out by politicians. He uses Ralph Waldo Emerson and Frederick Douglass as compasses for what freedom means. He provides context and insights to the controversial headlines that is as far as most people hear, such as -- The courts rule that the constitution guarantees the the right to sodomy or abortion. He provides a great summary of the subconscious acceptance of our market economy. How we implicitly accept its arbitrary, inhuman and merciless aspects. And he provides reasons why we should be the driver of such negative aspects to make them more human friendly. He also sees the market economy as going hand-in-hand with promoting the best aspects of freedom. Finally, he takes the lessons from the US's experiments with freedom and sees aspects that we can apply as we try to solve the survival-challenging problems of this century.

The story of freedom and how it has changed

Everyone has a definition of freedom. In //A Tolerable Anarchy//, Jedediah Purdy looks at the history of our most cherished freedoms and how they have been defined and changed over the years since the Deceleration of Independence. How concepts and ideas have changed from one era to another, and how Presidents have used rhetoric to build a common heritage of freedom, and what it means to be free. Jedediah Purdy argues that Americans have never truly arrived at a concrete definition of freedom, that it is constantly changing with each generation; and that is important that it changes as people and lifestyles change. This is an excellent book. It is well written and informative. It provides the reader a glimpse into how past Presidents defined freedom and what it meant to be free. The last few chapters are really interesting as the author covers economic freedom. The author describes how these different freedoms came about and what they have meant for each generation of Americans. This is a book for anyone who is interested in learning how freedom came to be defined and how it has changed over the generations.