How We Invented Freedom & Why It Matters

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

How We Invented Freedom & Why It MattersAuthor(s): Daniel Hannan\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom\nImprint: Head of Zeus\nISBN-13: 9781781857564, 978-1781857564\nSynopsis\nThis book tells the story of freedom and explains how it is a uniquely 'British', rather than 'Western', invention. It shows how the inhabitants of a damp island at the western tip of the Eurasian landmass stumbled upon the extraordinary idea that the state was the servant, and not the master, of the individual. \n\nThis revolutionary concept created security of property and contract which, in turn, led to industrialization and modern capitalism. For the first time in the history of the species, a system grew up which, on the whole, rewarded production over predation. The system was carried across the oceans by English-speakers sometimes colonial administrators, sometimes patriotic settlers where in Philadelphia 1787, it was distilled into its purest and most sublime fo.