Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture [Paperback]

Orlando Patterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 1992 | ISBN-10: 0465025323 | ISBN-13: 978-0465025329

This magisterial work traces the history of our most cherished value. Patterson links the birth of freedom in primitive societies with the institution of slavery, and traces the evolution of three forms of freedom in the West from antiquity through the Middle Ages.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Orlando Patterson is the John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (October 14, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465025323
• ISBN-13: 978-0465025329
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #601,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and inspiring work from an unlikely source., May 2, 1998

By 

Joseph L. Bast (Illinois, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (Paperback)

Who would have thought that a Marxist sociologist at Harvard could write a profoundly moving account of the history of freedom? Patterson delivers a highly readable account of the "three chords of freedom" as they evolved in the ancient world, were crushed during the Roman empire, and were reborn and spread worldwide by history's first freedom-centered religion, Christianity. The book has just two small flaws: the author's frequent references to rusty Marxist notions of class struggle, and the sketchy and incomplete character of the final chapters and conclusion. Still, it is a marvelous read. I for once can hardly wait for volume 2, expected in 1999.

4 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Altering Book, July 17, 2002

By 

Paul M. Neville (Jackson, MS United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (Paperback)

This book literally changed my life. I stumbled on it at a [local bookstore] (sorry Amazon). Through this Marxist scholar I learned pride in the accomplishments of my culture i. e. Western Civilization.

While his Marxist training sometimes peeks through, in asides, it never interferes in his central theme which ultimately destroys the foundations of Marxist thought and propaganda.

His skill is in weaving facts about the West, we all know but have displaced because of left wing historical revision, into a compelling and coherent pagent about the "invention" of freedom.

This Marxist turned me into a proud conservative.

11 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Bourgeois' Attempt to Understand Freedom, December 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Freedom, Vol. 1: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture (Paperback)

Mr. Patterson is a bourgeois who understands freedom from a typical husbandman's perspective. What he doesn't see is the perspective of nomads, gypsies, wandering artists, etc., i.e. the moving crowd. He did not look at them, and by this missed the chance to write about a commitment to freedom much deeper and older than the attempts of the people bound to their soil or community. Also, he neglects the Jewish heritage of Christianity and its fight for freedom. Obviously he has not read Michael Walzer's "Exodus and Revolution". If he had, he would have known that the first successful attempt to become free from slavery did not happen in Greece but in the desert between Egypt and Palestine. It was not Greek rhetoric about freedom but the Exodus story that gave spiritual power to the civil rights movement.