How We Invented Freedom & Why It Matters Av Daniel Hannan

<p>This 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. </p><p>This 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 form as the US Constitution. </p><p>Freedom is the key to the success of the English-speaking peoples and this book teaches us to keep fast to that legacy and, in our turn, to pass it intact to the next gener