The Light Of Liberty

From the Reformation to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, A.C. Grayling tells the story of the 500-year battle for liberty in the West.

In The Light of Liberty, Paul H. Dun travels the trail of freedom. Through time and history, in wars of countries and ideals, he sees the light of liberty as a beacon of truth to the whole world. Rich with inimitable stories and examples and laced throughout with quotations from patriots, writers, and statesmen, The Light of Liberty is a celebration of America from sea to shining sea.

• Explains Aikido solutions for peacefully resolving difficulties that arise with intimidating and unpredictable people, those who are stubborn or don’t listen, insincere people who want something from you, and chaotic situations • Presents Aikido’s step-by-step protocol for developing the receptiveness of the beginner’s mind and deescalating potentially violent or dangerous situations • Shares stories of how Aikido helped the author transform interpersonal difficulties into peaceful interactions In addition to the physical practice, the modern martial art of Aikido also offers profound principles for transforming interpersonal conflict into peaceful interaction. Illuminating the inner philosophical and practical aspects of Aikido, forty-seven-year Aikido practitioner and 6th-degree blackbelt Susan Perry, Ph.D., uses personal stories of joy, achievement, and hardship to demonstrate real-life applications of the transformational principles of Aikido. She introduces what Aikido is and where it comes from, providing a brief biography of its founder, Morihei Ueshiba. She explains in detail how Aikido helped her resolve difficulties at work, as a student, and as a teacher/sensei. Through each story shared, the author offers a glimpse of the beginner’s mind in action, the key to changing even the violent energy of an attack into peaceful interaction. Presenting Aikido’s step-by-step protocol for developing the receptiveness of the beginner’s mind, a state essential to personal transformation, Perry explains how distraction and timing can be used to deescalate potentially violent or dangerous situations. She discusses the founder’s philosophy of conflict, showing how Aikido can help peacefully resolve difficulties that arise with pushy, intimidating, and unpredictable people, those who are stubborn or don’t listen, insincere people who want something from you, and chaotic situations. She explains how a deepening practice of the martial art leads to an aiki state of inner peace, fusion, and boundless joy. Revealing how Aikido can help you face your fears and develop your heart and soul, this book shows how this martial art helps you embrace change, cultivate a strong center, and ultimately live a joyful life of engagement with the world.

Were Thomas Jefferson alive to read this book, he would recognize every sentence, every elegant turn of phrase, every lofty, beautifully expressed idea. Indeed, every word in the book is his. In an astonishing feat of editing, Eric S. Petersen has culled the entirety of Thomas Jefferson’s published works to fashion thirty-four original essays on themes ranging from patriotism and liberty to hope, humility, and gratitude. The result is a lucid, inspiring distillation of the wisdom of one of America’s greatest political thinkers. From his personal motto—“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”—to his resounding discourse on “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson defined the essential truth of the American spirit. In the essays that Petersen has crafted from letters, speeches, and public documents, Jefferson’s unique moral philosophy and vision shine through. Among the hundreds of magnificent sentences gathered in this volume, here are Jefferson’s pronouncements on Gratitude: “I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations— to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements and under all circumstances, to be open and generous.” Religion: “A concern purely between our God and our consciences.” America’s national character: “It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate; to surmount every difficulty with resolution and contrivance.” Public debt: “We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves.” War: “I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.” In stately measured cadences, these thirty-four essays provide timeless guidance on leading a spiritually fulfilling life. Light and Liberty is a triumphant work of supreme eloquence, as uplifting today as when Jefferson first set these immortal sentences on paper.

“Turns out that what you thought you knew about Lady Liberty is dead wrong. Learn the truth in this fascinating account.” —O, The Oprah Magazine The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable monuments in the world, a powerful symbol of freedom and the American dream. For decades, the myth has persisted that the statue was a grand gift from France, but now Liberty’s Torch reveals how she was in fact the pet project of one quixotic and visionary French sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. Bartholdi not only forged this 151-foot-tall colossus in a workshop in Paris and transported her across the ocean, but battled to raise money for the statue and make her a reality. A young sculptor inspired by a trip to Egypt where he saw the pyramids and Sphinx, he traveled to America, carrying with him the idea of a colossal statue of a woman. There he enlisted the help of notable people of the age—including Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph Pulitzer, Victor Hugo, Gustave Eiffel, and Thomas Edison—to help his scheme. He also came up with inventive ideas to raise money, including exhibiting the torch at the Philadelphia world’s fair and charging people to climb up inside. While the French and American governments dithered, Bartholdi made the statue a reality by his own entrepreneurship, vision, and determination. “By explaining Liberty’s tortured history and resurrecting Bartholdi’s indomitable spirit, Mitchell has done a great service. This is narrative history, well told. It is history that connects us to our past and—hopefully—to our future.” —Los Angeles Times

The epic story of the interlocking struggles to achieve the individual rights and freedoms that characterize Western civilization, by one of the world's leading public intellectuals. Perhaps the hallmark of western civilization over the past five hundred years, writes A. C. Grayling, is the series of liberation struggles without which the ordinary citizen in Western countries would not enjoy the rights and freedoms we now take for granted. They began with the often violent battle to allow independent thought, uncontrolled by the Church, which led in time to political freedom as monarchies were gradually replaced by more representative forms of government. These in turn made possible the abolition of slavery, rights for working men and women, universal education, the enfranchisement of women, and much more. Each of these struggles was a memorable human drama, and Grayling skillfully interweaves the stories of celebrated and little-known heroes alike-from Martin Luther and John Locke to the sixteenth-century French scholar Sebastien Castellio and the nineteenth-century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The triumphs and sacrifices of those who dared to oppose authority ring loudly down the ages, proving how hard-won each successive victory has been. And yet, as Grayling persuasively shows in a cautionary coda, democratic governments under pressure have often thought it necessary to restrict rights in the name of freedom, further underlining how precious they are. Toward the Light of Liberty is, thus, particularly relevant as we head toward an election season in which our own civil liberties will surely be an issue.