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The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,000-Year History, Told Through the Lives of Freedom's Greatest Champions
Of humankind's great achievements over the past 2,000 years, one towers above all the rest: the arduous, painstaking process of wresting liberty from tyranny's iron fist. The Triumph of Liberty chronicles this inspiring story through sixty-five biographical portraits. From the millions of men and women whose struggles and successes have made freedom possible, Jim Powell has chosen a few talented, courageous individuals whose lives illustrate the triumphing will of the human spirit. Some of these people, like Martin Luther King Jr., remain famous; others, like John Lilburne, who spent most of his adult life in prison battling England's infamous Star Chamber, are almost unknown. Some of Powell's choices--Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis L'Amour--may be surprising. Others still--like Milton Friedman or Margaret Thatcher--are controversial. Woven together, their moving life stories tell a brilliant epic saga of the triumph of liberty as a whole.
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First published July 4, 2000
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About the author
Jim Powell
11 books9 followersJim Powell is Senior Fellow at a libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., with which he has been associated since 1988. He has also done work for the Manhattan Institute, the Institute for Humane Studies, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the National Right to Work Committee and Americans for Free Choice in Medicine.
Powell is an author on the history of liberty. He wrote three books that reported findings about the unintended consequences of major presidential policies. Altogether he has written eight books and is perhaps best known for FDR's Folly, which has been praised by Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and James M. Buchanan, Harvard historian David Landes and historian Thomas Fleming. Powell's books have been translated into Japanese.
Powell is an author on the history of liberty. He wrote three books that reported findings about the unintended consequences of major presidential policies. Altogether he has written eight books and is perhaps best known for FDR's Folly, which has been praised by Nobel Laureates Milton Friedman and James M. Buchanan, Harvard historian David Landes and historian Thomas Fleming. Powell's books have been translated into Japanese.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 31, 2015
“WITHDRAWN”
Through the author bio on an article I read somewhere I came to learn about the book “The Triumph of Liberty” by Jim Powell. I immediately went online, as I often do when something intrigues me, and purchased a previously owned copy from Amazon and waited expectantly. A few days later,
the book arrived; a plain blue hardback cover with the word “WITHDRAWN” stamped in bold red across the binding like an ugly indictment. The book had been checked into a university library in the Midwest a decade before, and never checked out – not once.
Unfazed, I began to read.
This remarkable book is a compendium of short biographies of dozens of the men and women who dedicated their lives for the cause of liberty. Some are well known; names like Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. Some are controversial; people like Lysander Spooner and Ayn Rand. Some of them are from ancient history; like Cicero. Some are economists like Ludwig Von Mises and Frederic Hayek; others are novelists like Victor Hugo and Louis L’Amour; while still others are musicians like Ludwig Von Beethoven. Many of them are virtually unknown, like Thomas Szasz who fought against the medieval treatment of mental patients in the United States in the 20th century. All of them are patches in freedom’s extraordinary quilt.
There are two things that struck me about the stories in this book. The first is the amazing diversity in which those who love freedom labored. The protagonists fought for the free man in parliament, through literature and music, in the arena of economics and philosophy. Some struggled publicly and have their names enshrined on marble monuments; and some privately and have been forgotten. Yet all of them made liberty a life’s cause.
The second thing that struck me is the effect of this struggle on the people themselves. The fight to be free became an all-consuming passion for these men and women of courage; costing them reputations, money, employment and for many even their lives. Despite knowing this, they still embraced the cause; they could do nothing else.
As I closed the book, my heart reinvigorated by so great a cloud of witnesses, I saw again the blood red accusation “WITHDRAWN”. What a telling statement; in a country founded upon the ideals of liberty, a book about her champions cannot find a place. I wonder what the book’s protagonists would have thought about the modern era. I suppose they would not have been surprised – as those who still struggle today are not surprised – that our bright ideas are so often discarded. What I know for certain, they would not have surrendered; their own lives are proof of that.
Today, there is a new generation who also is not surrendering. Novelists like Mario Vargas Llosa; authors like Mustafa Akyol; politicians like Maria Corina Machado; economists like Walter Williams and so many others. Like those who came before, they have made the cause of liberty their life’s calling.
And so the struggle goes on, as it probably always will. Those whose ideas bring liberty and prosperity – the men and women of the mind – “keenly setting brush-fires in people’s minds” as they struggle against those who chose violence and slavery. But as we go forward, we can take solace in “The Triumph of Liberty”, knowing that we are making common cause with a great movement of people and that our idea – the freedom itself which we love so much and wish was the birthright of every man – is and always will be inevitable.
Through the author bio on an article I read somewhere I came to learn about the book “The Triumph of Liberty” by Jim Powell. I immediately went online, as I often do when something intrigues me, and purchased a previously owned copy from Amazon and waited expectantly. A few days later,
the book arrived; a plain blue hardback cover with the word “WITHDRAWN” stamped in bold red across the binding like an ugly indictment. The book had been checked into a university library in the Midwest a decade before, and never checked out – not once.
Unfazed, I began to read.
This remarkable book is a compendium of short biographies of dozens of the men and women who dedicated their lives for the cause of liberty. Some are well known; names like Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass. Some are controversial; people like Lysander Spooner and Ayn Rand. Some of them are from ancient history; like Cicero. Some are economists like Ludwig Von Mises and Frederic Hayek; others are novelists like Victor Hugo and Louis L’Amour; while still others are musicians like Ludwig Von Beethoven. Many of them are virtually unknown, like Thomas Szasz who fought against the medieval treatment of mental patients in the United States in the 20th century. All of them are patches in freedom’s extraordinary quilt.
There are two things that struck me about the stories in this book. The first is the amazing diversity in which those who love freedom labored. The protagonists fought for the free man in parliament, through literature and music, in the arena of economics and philosophy. Some struggled publicly and have their names enshrined on marble monuments; and some privately and have been forgotten. Yet all of them made liberty a life’s cause.
The second thing that struck me is the effect of this struggle on the people themselves. The fight to be free became an all-consuming passion for these men and women of courage; costing them reputations, money, employment and for many even their lives. Despite knowing this, they still embraced the cause; they could do nothing else.
As I closed the book, my heart reinvigorated by so great a cloud of witnesses, I saw again the blood red accusation “WITHDRAWN”. What a telling statement; in a country founded upon the ideals of liberty, a book about her champions cannot find a place. I wonder what the book’s protagonists would have thought about the modern era. I suppose they would not have been surprised – as those who still struggle today are not surprised – that our bright ideas are so often discarded. What I know for certain, they would not have surrendered; their own lives are proof of that.
Today, there is a new generation who also is not surrendering. Novelists like Mario Vargas Llosa; authors like Mustafa Akyol; politicians like Maria Corina Machado; economists like Walter Williams and so many others. Like those who came before, they have made the cause of liberty their life’s calling.
And so the struggle goes on, as it probably always will. Those whose ideas bring liberty and prosperity – the men and women of the mind – “keenly setting brush-fires in people’s minds” as they struggle against those who chose violence and slavery. But as we go forward, we can take solace in “The Triumph of Liberty”, knowing that we are making common cause with a great movement of people and that our idea – the freedom itself which we love so much and wish was the birthright of every man – is and always will be inevitable.
March 12, 2015
A wonderful collection of mini-biographies on some of the most important men and women in the cause of liberty. Spanning millennia and reaching from Hungary to Virginia, the Triumph of Liberty is inspiring and captivating to anyone desiring to learn about the unique history of the cause and how the world transformed from a collection of kingdoms and violent city-states, to one now led by an alliance of liberal democracies.
It also demonstrates the common threat to freedom in history, which is almost exclusively government power, not large commercial empires or religious forces (although there are exceptions). Standing in the way of these brave men and women were corrupt government officials, kings, and politicians desperate to achieve their own ends without concern for anyone else. Many of the individuals were not politicians but were writers, intellectuals, lawyers, businessmen, military officers and pastors. The diverse backgrounds demonstrate the importance of people outside of politics and the power to change government without being corrupted by it.
On the negative side, the book is long and tends to get repetitive towards the end. Some of the stories of individuals come from the same country and time period, doing the same kind of work. Powell could've been a little more selective and maybe knocked the 530 page book into something in the mid to early 400s. There is no strong introduction or conclusion that clearly defines or lays out what all the individuals have in common, in other words, a concise explanation of liberty, natural rights, and freedom. The individuals listed are predominantly libertarian, with a viewpoint that is not shared by the majority today. As such, some of the chapters are more controversial than Powell probably intended. A slightly shorter, less controversial history would've been more persuasive in my opinion.
I highly recommend this one, with the caveat that one doesn't need to read it beginning to end. Section by section would be more compelling and practical.
It also demonstrates the common threat to freedom in history, which is almost exclusively government power, not large commercial empires or religious forces (although there are exceptions). Standing in the way of these brave men and women were corrupt government officials, kings, and politicians desperate to achieve their own ends without concern for anyone else. Many of the individuals were not politicians but were writers, intellectuals, lawyers, businessmen, military officers and pastors. The diverse backgrounds demonstrate the importance of people outside of politics and the power to change government without being corrupted by it.
On the negative side, the book is long and tends to get repetitive towards the end. Some of the stories of individuals come from the same country and time period, doing the same kind of work. Powell could've been a little more selective and maybe knocked the 530 page book into something in the mid to early 400s. There is no strong introduction or conclusion that clearly defines or lays out what all the individuals have in common, in other words, a concise explanation of liberty, natural rights, and freedom. The individuals listed are predominantly libertarian, with a viewpoint that is not shared by the majority today. As such, some of the chapters are more controversial than Powell probably intended. A slightly shorter, less controversial history would've been more persuasive in my opinion.
I highly recommend this one, with the caveat that one doesn't need to read it beginning to end. Section by section would be more compelling and practical.
June 14, 2007
Feeling down about your country? Feeling either Bush-whacked or on the flip side, trying to protect yourself from the great unwashed mass of humanity pandered to with promises of feeding off your labor and hard-won goods. Whatever your political leaning, the tortured on-going history of the most noble social experiment of all times can't help but inspire. This collection of biographical essays is a basic primer from which anyone who wants to seriously study political ideas that crystallized our understanding of the rights of individual men (into concise understanding the whether they be libertarian, objectivist, or humanist) should start.
January 2, 2013
An excellent overview of the individuals who have most advanced the ideas and implementation of individual freedom. Provides an excellent springboard and reference for additional research!
March 10, 2020
This is a series of short (less than 10 pages each) articles on a variety of people throughout history who have had an impact on the quest for individual liberty over the history of mankind, from Cicero to Ronald Reagan. It's a great primer, and reminder of the many thoughts and views that have contributed to the advancement of liberty, and you may find a few people in here that you wouldn't have thought of on your own.
Covered:
Lord Acton
Samuel Adams
Frederic Bastiat
Ludwig Van Beethoven
James Buchanan
Cicero
Richard Cobden
Edward Coke
Benjamin Constant
Frederick Douglass
Erasmus
Ben Franklin
Milton Friedman
William Lloyd Garrison
William S. Gilbert
William Gladstone
Goya
Hugo Grotius
F.A. Hayek
R.A. Heinlein
Victor Hugo
Thomas Jefferson
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Marquis de Lafayette
Louis L'Amour
Rose Wilder Lane
John Lilburne
John Locke
Thomas Macaulay
James Madison
H.L. Mencken
Ludwig von Mises
Baron de Montesquieu
Maria Montessori
Albert Jay Nock
Daniel O'Connell
Thomas Paine
William Penn
Francois Rabelais
Ayn Rand
Leonard E. Read
Ronald Reagan
Murray Rothbard
Friedrich Schiller
Algernon Sidney
Adam Smith
Herbert Spencer
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
George J. Stigler
William Sumner
Thomas Szasz
Maggie Thatcher
Thoreau
de Tocqueville
Turgot
Samuel Clemens
Raoul Wallenberg
Booker T. Washington
Roger Williams
Mary Wollstonecraft
It's a good read.
Covered:
Lord Acton
Samuel Adams
Frederic Bastiat
Ludwig Van Beethoven
James Buchanan
Cicero
Richard Cobden
Edward Coke
Benjamin Constant
Frederick Douglass
Erasmus
Ben Franklin
Milton Friedman
William Lloyd Garrison
William S. Gilbert
William Gladstone
Goya
Hugo Grotius
F.A. Hayek
R.A. Heinlein
Victor Hugo
Thomas Jefferson
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Marquis de Lafayette
Louis L'Amour
Rose Wilder Lane
John Lilburne
John Locke
Thomas Macaulay
James Madison
H.L. Mencken
Ludwig von Mises
Baron de Montesquieu
Maria Montessori
Albert Jay Nock
Daniel O'Connell
Thomas Paine
William Penn
Francois Rabelais
Ayn Rand
Leonard E. Read
Ronald Reagan
Murray Rothbard
Friedrich Schiller
Algernon Sidney
Adam Smith
Herbert Spencer
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
George J. Stigler
William Sumner
Thomas Szasz
Maggie Thatcher
Thoreau
de Tocqueville
Turgot
Samuel Clemens
Raoul Wallenberg
Booker T. Washington
Roger Williams
Mary Wollstonecraft
It's a good read.
December 15, 2016
Comprehensive-ish. A cherry-picked text about folks (men) through history that Powell admires and as it proceeds you get the point that he is some kind of an uber-scholar with an ax to grind. I knew nothing about him before i started the text and as i plodded through it was sort of clear that this was less about the characters from history (some rather insignificant) than it was about seeing a person's filter. Sort of like reading a book by Chef Boyardee where his comments on both Hitler and FDR were that they had a lovely tomato sauce.
This guy is all about telling who has his own version a political tomato sauce. Might have been a good book if this cat were writing about history instead of boring me with his own political convictions. Sigh.
This guy is all about telling who has his own version a political tomato sauce. Might have been a good book if this cat were writing about history instead of boring me with his own political convictions. Sigh.
January 8, 2017
This was a very nice overview of historical figures through the past 2000 years and their contributions to the liberties we take for granted. Some characters were discussed in too much detail and some in maybe not enough.
March 22, 2014
There was quite a bit of interesting material but it was disjointed and not very well organized.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews