The history of freedom and other essays. Speech Freedom, Freedom of the Press, and Democracy , Essay Writing Example 2022-10-22
The history of freedom and other essays
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The concept of freedom has a long and storied history, with roots dating back to ancient civilizations. The ancient Greeks, for example, believed in the concept of "eleutheria," which translates to "freedom" in English. This concept was closely tied to the idea of democracy, as the Greeks believed that citizens had the right to participate in the decision-making processes of their government.
The Romans also had a similar concept of freedom, which they referred to as "libertas." However, this freedom was only afforded to male citizens of Rome, and did not extend to women, slaves, or other marginalized groups.
Throughout history, the struggle for freedom has been a constant theme. In the Middle Ages, for example, the Magna Carta was signed in England, establishing the principle that even the king was subject to the rule of law. This document is considered to be one of the first steps towards modern democracy and the protection of individual rights.
The Enlightenment, a period of intellectual and philosophical growth in Europe during the 18th century, also played a significant role in the development of the modern concept of freedom. During this time, philosophers such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that all individuals have certain inalienable rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property. These ideas would go on to heavily influence the American Revolution and the drafting of the United States Constitution.
In the modern era, the struggle for freedom has continued. The civil rights movement in the United States, for example, fought for the freedom and equality of African Americans. And today, the fight for freedom and equality for all people, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and other factors, remains a crucial and ongoing battle.
In conclusion, the history of freedom is a long and complex one, with roots dating back to ancient civilizations and continuing to evolve to this day. It is a concept that has been fought for and struggled over throughout the course of human history, and one that remains a fundamental and essential aspect of modern society.
The History of Freedom and Other Essays
These doctrines were adopted and applied by the great jurists of the Empire. For our Lord not only delivered the precept, but created the force to execute it. It would be easy to point out a paragraph in St. But that time had passed. Six hundred years before the birth of Christ absolutism held unbounded sway. This volume consists of articles reprinted from the following journals: The Quarterly Review, The English Historical Review, The Nineteenth Century, The Rambler, The Home and Foreign Review, The North British Review, The Bridgworth Journal.
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The history of freedom and other essays : Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron, 1834
But although the maxims of the great classic teachers, of Sophocles, and Plato, and Seneca, and the glorious examples of public virtue were in the mouths of all men, there was no power in them to avert the doom of that civilisation for which the blood of so many patriots and the genius of such incomparable writers had been wasted in vain. The great question is to discover, not what governments prescribe, but what they ought to prescribe; for no prescription is valid against the conscience of mankind. By making every citizen the guardian of his own interest Solon admitted the element of Democracy into the State. In conclusion, a free press denotes a free country. Although the doctrine of self-reliance and self-denial, which is the foundation of political economy, was written as legibly in the New Testament as in the Wealth of Nations it was not recognised until our age. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.
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âThe History of Freedom (and other Essays) on Apple Books
Believing that no man can be entirely trusted, he subjected all who exercised power to the vigilant control of those for whom they acted. At the same time they wish to take the entire responsibility for the opinions expressed therein. Those who proclaimed the assistance of a higher authority had indeed drawn a metaphysical barrier before the governments, but they had not known how to make it real. If hostile interests have wrought much injury, false ideas have wrought still more; and its advance is recorded in the increase of knowledge, as much as in the improvement of laws. They resolved to govern by concurrence. Dalberg Acton was one of the great historians of the Victorian period and one of the greatest classical historians of all time. Monarchy was so alien to the primitive spirit of the community that it was resisted by Samuel in that momentous protestation and warning which all the kingdoms of Asia and many of the kingdoms of Europe have unceasingly confirmed.
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The History of Freedom and Other Essays by John Neville Figgis
The people, therefore, were the seat of power. From this universal degradation the world was rescued by the most gifted of the nations. Wherever we can trace the earlier life of the Aryan nations we discover germs which favouring circumstances and assiduous culture might have developed into free societies. As one might expect, some of Acton's views on freedom are a little out of da Along with the two titular lectures, this book includes a handful of other essays by the author, but the bulk of its content is made up of his reviews of other books. He resolutely struck away all the props that still sustained the artificial preponderance of wealth. They resolved to take their stand once more upon the ancient ways, and to restore the order of things which had subsisted when the monopoly of power had been taken from the rich and had not been acquired by the poor.
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Speech Freedom, Freedom of the Press, and Democracy , Essay Writing Example
But the lesson of their experience endures for all times, for it teaches that government by the whole people, being the government of the most numerous and most powerful class, is an evil of the same nature as unmixed monarchy, and requires, for nearly the same reasons, institutions that shall protect it against itself, and shall uphold the permanent reign of law against arbitrary revolutions of opinion. The abolition of privilege would have served only to transfer the supremacy from the rich to the poor, if Pericles had not redressed the balance by restricting the right of citizenship to Athenians of pure descent. If, drawing the limit in the second century, when the influence of Christianity becomes perceptible, we should form our judgment of the politics of antiquity by its actual legislation, our estimate would be low. When the overwhelming influence of Pericles was removed, the conflict between classes raged without restraint, and the slaughter that befell the higher ranks in the Peloponnesian war gave an irresistible preponderance to the lower. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world , and other notations in the work.
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âTHE HISTORY OF FREEDOM AND OTHER ESSAYS on Apple Books
The history of institutions is often a history of deception and illusions; for their virtue depends on the ideas that produce and on the spirit that preserves them, and the form may remain unaltered when the substance has passed away. No obstacle has been so constant, or so difficult to overcome, as uncertainty and confusion touching the nature of true liberty. His life's work was advancing the history of liberty though he was never able to complete his magnum opus. Parallel with the rise and fall of Athenian freedom, Rome was employed in working out the same problems, with greater constructive sense, and greater temporary success, but ending at last in a far more terrible catastrophe. . Official corruption, which would ruin a commonwealth, serves in Russia as a salutary relief from the pressure of absolutism. In 1895, Acton was appointed Professor of Modern History at Cambridge where he was known for his lectures, his writings for periodicals, and his personal contacts with the leading historians of the era.
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The History of Freedom and Other Essays/Chapter 1
In the very year 586, in which the flood of Asiatic despotism closed over the city which had been, and was destined again to be, the sanctuary of freedom in the East, a new home was prepared for it in the West, where, guarded by the sea and the mountains, and by valiant hearts, that stately plant was reared under whose shade we dwell, and which is extending its invincible arms so slowly and yet so surely over the civilised world. Their history furnishes the classic example of the peril of Democracy under conditions singularly favourable. But government by an elected Parliament was even in theory a thing unknown. In addition to your discussion, communism focuses on the collective ownership of property and the means of production in society, abolishing social classes and private property. The idea arose in the time of Platoâthough he repelled itâwhen the early monarchies and oligarchies had vanished, and it continued to be cherished long after all democracies had been absorbed in the Roman Empire. Johann Joseph Ignaz von Dollinger.
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The History of Freedom and Other Essays by John Emerich Edward Dalberg
The history of institutions is often a history of deception and illusions; for their virtue depends on the ideas that produce and on the spirit that preserves them, and the form may remain unaltered when the substance has passed away. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. The humblest and most numerous class of the Athenians united the legislative, the judicial, and, in part, the executive power. In a single number there are twenty-eight such notices. The short triumph of Athenian liberty, and its quick decline, belong to an age which possessed no fixed standard of right and wrong.
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The History of Freedom, and Other Essays
This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. In every age its progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstitution, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food. Those who deem Washington and Hamilton honest can apply the term to few European statesmen. What followed, during many generations, was the cruel domination of class over class, the oppression of the poor by the rich, and of the ignorant by the wise. In ancient times the State absorbed authorities not its own, and intruded on the domain of personal freedom. The epoch of doubt and transition during which the Greeks passed from the dim fancies of mythology to the fierce light of science was the age of Pericles, and the endeavour to substitute certain truth for the prescriptions of impaired authorities, which was then beginning to absorb the energies of the Greek intellect, is the grandest movement in the profane annals of mankind, for to it we owe, even after the immeasurable progress accomplished by Christianity, much of our philosophy and far the better part of the political knowledge we possess, Pericles, who was at the head of the Athenian Government, was the first statesman who encountered the problem which the rapid weakening of traditions forced on the political world. The illiberal sentiments of even the most illustrious metaphysicians are disclosed in the saying of Aristotle, that the mark of the worst governments is that they leave men free to live as they please.
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The history of freedom, and other essays : Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron, 1834
The experiment has been tried more often than I can tell, with a combination of resources that were unknown to the ancientsâwith Christianity, parliamentary government, and a free press. In general, the forms of the patriarchal age failed to resist the growth of absolute States when the difficulties and temptations of advancing life began to tell; and with one sovereign exception, which is not within my scope to-day, it is scarcely possible to trace their survival in the institutions of later times. The offices of State, which had been a monopoly of the rich, were thrown open to the poor, and in order to make sure that they should obtain their share, all but the highest commands were distributed by lot. The fight for political power had been carried on with the moderation which is so honourable a quality of party contests in England. This concession, apparently so slender, was the beginning of a mighty change. People who have access to the information they need from the government, and those who can say whatever they want to, indicate that the country is free.
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