Brief History of Liberty

David Schmidtz is Kendrick Professor of Philosophy, joint Professor of Economics, and Director of the Freedom Center at the University of Arizona. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, and Political Theory. Jason Brennan is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Research, at Brown University, and a faculty associate of the Political Theory Project at Brown University. His articles have appeared in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, and Ratio.

"Although the book has a strongly classical liberal flavour, it also contains some interesting discussion of positive liberty. For one thing, Schmidtz and Brennan argue that the progress of negative liberty in western societies has massively expanded almost everyone's range of real options. For another, they suggest that this greater (negative and positive) external freedom can open the way to a greater internal or psychological" freedom". (The Philosophers' Magazine, 13 August 2010) "Its brevity and simplicity is perhaps understandable, given the historical focus and ambitious scope of the book, and the authors' evident desire to get the light, entertaining and up-beat narrative moving." (The Philosopher's Magazine, August 2010)"The book weaves together a number of figures in social, political, philosophical, economic, and even psychological theory, in a way not commonly found, and it does so rather effectively." (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, September 05, 2010)"Schmidtz and Brennan offer their readers insights into the freedom debate by following it through the broad sweep of Western history...[A Brief History of Liberty]... comprehensive notes and bibliographies and...deserve[s] to be taken seriously by those with an interest in liberty." (The Philosopher, summer 2010)

• Acknowledgments viiIntroduction: Conceptions of Freedom 11 A Prehistory of Liberty: Forty Thousand Years Ago 302 The Rule of Law: ad 1075 603 Religious Freedom: 1517 934 Freedom of Commerce: 1776 1205 Civil Liberty: 1954 1696 Psychological Freedom, the Last Frontier: 1963 208Bibliography 244Index 261