Free-Born John Lilburne

For the British, liberty – from personal expression to religious and political conviction – is enshrined in our national identity. These freedoms have been (and often still are) fought for tooth and nail across the ages. Yet today our precious liberty is ever more at stake – in the private and public realm alike. This collection of essays and articles – many previously published in The Individual – the journal of the Society for Individual Freedom – takes liberty as its binding theme, examining freedom in a philosophical, political and historical context. First, the collection proposes a number of libertarian ‘heroes’: from 17th-century Leveller John Lilburne and 19th-century philosopher Herbert Spencer to 20th-century novelist and thinker Ayn Rand. Then it sets up a series of stimulating and provocative debates: on Cromwell as freedom’s 'friend or foe'; on slavery (voluntary and involuntary); on royalty, religion and politics. En route it tackles such hot topics as constitutional monarchy, disestablishment of the Church of England and the right to hunt, shoot and fish.