Give Me Liberty
A History of America's Exceptional Idea
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Narrated by:
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Tony Messano
About this listen
An award-winning historian recounts the history of American liberty through the stories of 13 essential documents
Nationalism is inevitable: It supplies feelings of belonging, identity, and recognition. It binds us to our neighbors and tells us who we are. But increasingly - from the United States to India, from Russia to Burma - nationalism is being invoked for unworthy ends: to disdain minorities or to support despots. As a result, nationalism has become to many a dirty word.
In Give Me Liberty, award-winning historian and biographer Richard Brookhiser offers up a truer and more inspiring story of American nationalism as it has evolved over 400 years. He examines America's history through 13 documents that made the United States a new country in a new world: a free country. We are what we are because of them; we stay true to what we are by staying true to them.
Americans have always sought liberty, asked for it, fought for it; every victory has been the fulfillment of old hopes and promises. This is our nationalism, and we should be proud of it.
©2019 Richard Brookhiser (P)2019 Basic BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"In our deeply divided America, Richard Brookhiser goes back in search of our roots, and finds them in that many-headed idea called 'liberty'. In his signature style, he wastes no words, defies the conventional political categories, and invites us to join him in recovering a series of inspirational moments when we all felt the same future in our hearts and minds. (Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Dialogue: The Founders and Us)
"Brookhiser grounds his spirited argument for American exceptionalism in the idea of liberty.... An engaging history of admirable episodes from America's past." (Kirkus)
"With his characteristic combination of elegance and shrewdness, Richard Brookhiser gives us another insightful account of what makes us the nation we are. Give Me Liberty is intellectual history at its riveting best." (H.W. Brands, author of Heirs of the Founders and Dreams of El Dorado)
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US Bash Job
- By Derek & Amber Witt on 04-14-22
By: Ada Ferrer
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Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York Times best-selling author and Founding Fathers' biographer Harlow Giles Unger comes the astonishing biography of the man whose pen set America ablaze, inspiring its revolution, and whose ideas about reason and religion continue to try men's souls.
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well written and researched
- By K D on 09-29-19
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Franklin & Washington
- The Founding Partnership
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: Andrew Tell
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Today the United States is the world’s great superpower, and yet we also wrestle with the government Franklin and Washington created more than two centuries ago - the power of the executive branch, the principle of checks and balances, the electoral college - as well as the wounds of their compromise over slavery. Now, as the founding institutions appear under new stress, it is time to understand their origins through the fresh lens of Larson’s Franklin & Washington, a major addition to the literature of the founding era.
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Two together, written about at same time
- By fair & balanced on 03-28-21
By: Edward J. Larson
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It Wasn’t About Slavery
- Exposing the Great Lie of the Civil War
- By: Samuel W. Mitcham
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Was the Civil War really about slavery? Or was it a war fought over money? Civil War historian Samuel W. Mitcham Jr., (Vicksburg, Bust Hell Wide Open) opens his fascinating new book, It Wasn't About Slavery, with Dr. Grady McWhiney's claim that "what passes as standard American history is really Yankee history written by New Englanders or their puppets to glorify Yankee heroes and ideals".
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Abbeville Condensed
- By AC Gleason on 07-16-20
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Lincoln in Private
- What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President
- By: Ronald C. White
- Narrated by: Ronald C. White
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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A deeply private man, shut off even to those who worked closely with him, Abraham Lincoln often captured “his best thoughts", as he called them, in short notes to himself. He would work out his personal stances on the biggest issues of the day, never expecting anyone to see these pieces of writing, which he’d then keep close at hand, in desk drawers and even in his top hat. The profound importance of these notes has been overlooked, because the originals are scattered across several different archives and have never before been brought together and examined as a coherent whole.
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A Good One--Highly Recommend
- By Jeffy on 04-18-23
By: Ronald C. White
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James Madison
- By: Richard Brookhiser
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Eminent historian Richard Brookhiser presents a vivid portrait of James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution” and one of America's greatest statesmen.
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OK book but not a biography
- By Joel Mayer on 08-05-12
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Union
- The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Union tells the story of the struggle to create a national myth for the United States, one that could hold its rival regional cultures together and forge an American nationhood.
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Required Reading
- By Ben Brafford on 08-30-20
By: Colin Woodard
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A History of the American People
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 48 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Johnson's monumental history of the United States, from the first settlers to the Clinton administration, covers every aspect of American culture: politics, business, art, literature, science, society and customs, complex traditions, and religious beliefs. The story is told in terms of the men and women who shaped and led the nation and the ordinary people who collectively created its unique character.
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A British conservative's view of American history.
- By Mike From Mesa on 06-17-09
By: Paul Johnson
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John Tyler, the Accidental President
- By: Edward P. Crapol
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The first vice president to become president on the death of the incumbent, John Tyler (1790-1862) was derided by critics as "His Accidency." In this biography of the 10th president, Edward P. Crapol challenges depictions of Tyler as a die-hard advocate of states' rights, limited government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Instead, he argues, Tyler manipulated the Constitution to increase the executive power of the presidency. Crapol also highlights Tyler's faith in America's national destiny and his belief in boundless territorial expansion.
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Terrible book :( Incredibly TEDIOUS.
- By Mike on 10-02-19
By: Edward P. Crapol
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John Marshall
- The Man Who Made the Supreme Court
- By: Richard Brookhiser
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The life of John Marshall, founding father and America's premier chief justice. In 1801, a genial and brilliant Revolutionary War veteran and politician became the fourth chief justice of the US. He would hold the post for 34 years (still a record), expounding the Constitution he loved. Before he joined the Court, it was the weakling of the federal government, lacking in dignity and clout. After he died, it could never be ignored again.
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Excellent Biography
- By Jean on 12-14-18
What listeners say about Give Me Liberty
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- idboy
- 01-09-20
A great summary tied together
Many threads of history tied together very well. A rebuttal of sorts to both sides of the current political morass.
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- Cynthia M. Suprenant
- 12-23-19
Extraordinary!
I'm so grateful that this book was made available via Audible. I do love to read, but some books strike me as special when read aloud or performed. This is one of them!
I listen when walking the pasture, tending animals, doing laundry and other household chores. I savored it -- for the stories and speeches about our history and ideals, for the hooks it dropped into my education in history (I'm a physicist and lawyer, not a historian) from many years gone by. I highly recommend this book -- whether in print or via audio edition -- as a very useful reacquainting with an interesting range of American events, persons, ideals, and history.
Thumbs up to the narrator -- the pace, the intonation, the familiarity with the subject that permitted correct phrasing, pauses and the like, well, just perfect.
Thank you.
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3 people found this helpful