Liberty as Independence. The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal

What lies behind the concept of "freedom"? How have ideas about it evolved over the centuries, and what are the global consequences of the struggle to achieve it?

Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal traces the history of different interpretations of liberty from Antiquity to the present day. Quentin Skinner examines the understanding of freedom as independence—from the classical ideal to early modern Britain, where this view reached its peak in the claims of the Whig oligarchy to have brought the concept to life. But after the Whig idea of a free state and civil society was undermined by the American Revolution in 1776, Skinner explores how a new perspective emerged: the notion that freedom is essentially the absence of physical or coercive constraints.

The book considers new dimensions of these opposing views by exploring the links between debates on liberty and slavery, leading up to how these ideas were utilized in feminist reflections on the restrictions placed on women's freedom. The concept of freedom is inherently global, and Skinner convincingly argues for the need to restore the understanding of freedom as independence.

With an additional preface by the author for Bulgarian readers.