If it weren't so massive, this might be a decent beach read. Unfortunately, while Fischer's efforts to explore how notions of "liberty" and "freedom" have evolved in the US is admirable, the result is very disappointing -- the book is diffuse and often superficial. Organized into thematic "episodes" rather like an episode of "60 Minutes" (maybe he doesn't have much confidence in his readers' powers of concentration), Fischer calls this a "visual history." Lots of illustrations but little analysis of these as evidence -- in particular he fails to demonstrate any informed or coherent knowledge of the intentions of the artists and designers. Factual errors abound and, especially towards the end, the writing is repetitive and superficial. A good editor might have been able to rescue this overly-ambitious tome from failure.

I stumbled upon this book in the bargain section of Borders, never seen it or even heard of it before. The author is a professor at my alma mater, Brandeis, so it caught my eye. Prof. Fischer has gotten extensive press for many of his other books, but I guess this one wasn't on my radar. It's a great coffee table book, with lots of color pictures illustrating the history of the symbols of liberty and freedom--posters, cartoons, flags, photographs, art, magazine illustrations, etc. Pretty much an illustrated history of the United States. Easy to read, educational, very interesting. Covers all the big social issues as well as the military and political milestones. I haven't even finished reading it yet because I've been so busy admiring all the illustrations, but I was excited enough to write a review anyway. I highly recommend it.

This is not a book to be taken (or carried) lightly but I enjoyed it very much and reference it often. Its size notwithstanding, Liberty and Freedom is very accessible and organized in such a way that the reader can read in detail, scan or skip around as their interests guide them. David Hackett Fischer is in that small group of elite historians who write will absolute authority and ease on the subject of American History. In its use of visuals, this book reminds me somewhat of the books of Alistair Cooke although his prodigious output generally ran more to popular tastes. In all his books, DHF revels in detail which may slow some readers down but, again, it is organized in such a way that you can move around and still follow the general thread. All will enjoy but for those with a deep interest in American History, Liberty and Freedom is a must have book.

I read this big book because David Hackett Fischer is a historian I greatly admire and if he finds a theme worthwhile, I consider it a mandatory assignment. Liberty and Freedom eschews philosophy; it studys the symbols that arouse and sustain the national spirit: flags, liberty poles, anthems, medals, seals, catch words, documents and statues.

I admit this was not an easy read for me. I have always found parades tedious. I am tone deaf to martial music. Flags are a piece of cloth flapping in the wind. My love of country is expressed in different ways. In my youth, that included military service in our most (or perhaps second-most) misguided war. I feel repelled by gatherings of still delirious veterans. As years passed, I came to distrust politicians who cheered for flags or other symbols. It was usually a sign that they had scant understanding of their country's history and were feigning patriotism to garner votes. I appreciate symbols as necessary to the human condition, but for me they're tools of the hornswoggler.

The best part of this book is the post WWII history that I lived through. Fischer treats all the prime cultural/political movements as symbols that changed our conception of liberty/freedom. McCarthyism, the Civil Rights Movement, the 60s hippie counterculture, the women's movement, the return of conservatism, and more get chapters. His encapsulations of these events are quite precise. I think this book will grow in importance as years go by. It is truly important, and for a huge hunk of the country, this is the extract of Americana. And I do love it.

David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed established him as one of the finest historians writing for a general audience. Since the publication of that landmark history, Fischer has produced a number of outstanding books, including among them Paul Revere's Ride, and Washington's Crossing, each of which skillfully demonstrates how cultural forces, reflected in individual decisions and actions, affected the course of events at a critical fork in the historical road.

This latest work from Fischer compares favorably to his greatest works, and is a plausible candidate for his finest effort yet.

To be great history, a work must succeed on several levels. One is that it must be interesting -- the reader must feel compelled to press on. Another is that it must be informative; it should educate, ideally in a fair way, conveying what is most important, and minimizing the influence of author bias. But the acid test of what makes for a great history may be whether it enables the reader to understand his world in a fundamentally new, insightful way. Albion's Seed and Fischer's other great works accomplish this. So too does Liberty and Freedom, in spades.

Fischer aims to trace the development of the concepts and values of Liberty and Freedom throughout American history. To lay the foundation, he studies the terms themselves. Liberty, Fischer finds, derives from the classical Latin world, with connotations relating to the release from bondage. Consequently, in later history, it carries overtones of meaning the ability to move and to act without interference or constraint by others.

Freedom, on the other hand, relates to the Germanic "Freiheit," and has different connotations, specifically the possession of the full rights of citizenship, of belonging to a society. We see its connotations in phrases such as "the rights of free-born Englishmen," the sense that in belonging to a community, each member is accorded certain rights and freedoms.

Fischer argues that the English language is unique in carrying these twin concepts within the language in parallel, with the result that English-speaking cultures have long pursued both conceptions, and only more recently have begun to use the terms more interchangeably. The suggestion is made that the dual conception arises in part from the historical fact that both Romance and Germanic language and cultural influences implanted themselves in England many centuries ago.

Fischer traces the flowering of the concepts of liberty and freedom in America, with great attention to how these have been expressed through popular culture and political argument. His history is one of broad participation; elected leaders make cases for their visions of liberty and freedom, but so too do the teeming masses express their evolving views of liberty and freedom in ways that shape the country's direction.

Someone who is considering buying this book should be aware that this is just about the quickest 800 pages you will ever come across. I devoured it in just a few days on my commutes. His writing is brisk, the volume handsomely illustrated. The chapters are brief and thematically very tightly organized. If there is a slow patch in the book, I cannot recall it.

One of Fischer's more interesting conclusions pertains to the role of America's military conflicts in shaping the progress of American freedom. His general thesis is that each conflict has led at first to a curtailment of individual freedom, but then has resulted in its considerable expansion. Consider, for example, that the Civil War began with the suspension of habeas corpus and ended not only with its reinstatement but with the (then) radical 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, establishing emancipation and equal protection of the laws. WWII began with the incarceration of Japanese Americans, but its end ushered in the integration of America's schools, armed forces (and major league baseball.) Even the Cold War, which has become equated in Hollywood's popular memory with the early abuses by Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee, produced the boomerang effects of Miranda Rights, the Civil Rights act, and many other expansions of liberty in the 1960s.

Fischer's message is a hopeful one in the climate of America's current conflict. He reminds us not only that each of America's conflicts has produced an initial constraint on individual liberties followed by their subsequent expansions, but also that each conflict has advanced the ball relative to the one before. The restraints on individual freedoms, for example, that occurred in the context of World War I far surpassed those that occurred in either WWII or the Cold War.

Fischer saves his most powerful lesson till the end, when he documents that political power flows to those who publicly dedicate themselves to liberty and freedom, not to those who promise cradle-to-grave security, government-provided benefits, or any variant thereof. Americans' commitment to the twin conceptions of liberty and freedom remains strong even as Americans disagree on what these concepts mean and how they should apply to our daily lives. But the politician who ignores these fundamental values does so at his/her own peril.