Freedom in the Modern World

This is the second part of Orland Patterson’s two-volume work examining freedom. The first volume, focusing on freedom in the ancient world, was published in 1991 to wide acclaim. This concluding volume chronicles the quest for freedom from the 17th century to today. Patterson demonstrates that contrary to popular belief, freedom in the West did not emerge coincidentally with capitalism, but rather that there had been an unbroken continuity between the most ancient and modern conceptions of freedom.