Triumph of Liberty : A 2,000-Year History, Told through the Lives of Freedom's Greatest Champions

Of humankind's great achievements over the past 2,000 years, one towers above all the rest: the arduous, painstaking process of wresting liberty from tyranny's iron fist. The Triumph of Liberty chronicles this inspiring story through sixty-five biographical portraits. From the millions of men and women whose struggles and successes have made freedom possible, Jim Powell has chosen a few talented, courageous individuals whose lives illustrate the triumphing will of the human spirit. Some of these people, like Martin Luther King Jr., remain famous; others, like John Lilburne, who spent most of his adult life in prison battling England's infamous Star Chamber, are almost unknown. Some of Powell's choices-Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis L'Amour-may be surprising. Others still-like Milton Friedman or Margaret Thatcher-are controversial. Woven together, their moving life stories tell a brilliant epic saga of the triumph of liberty as a whole.