Freedom in America

For United States History survey courses, History of the American Revolution, History of the Early Republic, Twentieth-Century United States, US Political History, Constitutional History, History of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, also political science courses examining the Constitution and Civil Liberties.

 

What is American freedom? This anthology defines and shows the evolution of this intrinsic American right through 95 letters, essays, constitutions, and laws. The authors both criticizes the U.S. for its failures to live up to its ideals and inspires it to expand the benefits of freedom to ever-increasing multitudes. 

 

This book originated with a comment to the author: “The five most important words in American History are: all men are created equal.”  Meaning, the entire history of the nation can be summarized in the transition of this statement moving from an ideal to a legal reality where everyone regardless of race, sex, or belief enjoys the same rights.  Bridges wanted to share this idea with his students. He wanted to explore with his class the rich commentary of past figures as they struggled with expanding freedom and civil liberties to more groups.  Seeing as there were no manuscripts at the time that covered the subjects he wanted to discuss, he began writing this book in 2003, poring through books, articles, and collections of speeches. The result is Freedom in America .