Customer Reviews

Give Me Liberty: Freeing Ourselves in the Twenty-First Century

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have read several of Gerry Spence's books, some of which I loved and some of which bored me to sleep at night. This one is definately a must buy!
I am a 39 year old US Citizen who returned to the USA just 2 years ago after living from age 18-26 in Soviet Occupied East Germany and age 29-35 in "Reunified" Germany with the in between years spent in Hungary, South Africa and The United Arab Emirates. Upon my return to this country I was floored by just how similar the US has become to many of those countries whose governments I viewed as "police states".
In this book, Gerry Spence responds to many of my concerns, points out many recent dangerous precedents and sounds the alarm that our freedoms and Rights really are in jeopardy! For the first time since my return to the USA I realize that my observations are in fact valid and that there are others out there who are well travelled, educated and/or observant enough to see what is really going on.
Gerry likes to be a poet and he likes to spin fine webs of utopian bliss but he is also a very observant and astute critic of American ideals and images VS the reality behind them. Give the book a read! What else can you get for $2.00 that might just change your perception of life in the USA?

No one says Gerry Spence is a great writer; his prose is overblown, more suited to the novelists' courtroom than a serious book, but his ideas will surely upset the status quo. Good. His statements that American workers who have less control over their own lives than ever before have become slaves to the--whatever, be it culture, government, corporation or all of the above is one that many Americans will agree with if they are brave enough to admit it. He advocates taking back that control we should have in a democracy through several methods--the first of which is to live simply so that the corporation/government handouts are less necessary for your livelihood, and the second is to seriously look at the way big money and government control everything in this country. We have a duty to overthrow a corrupt and onerous gov't according to the constitution, says Spence and he lays out his ideas about how to go about that. I particularly like his idea of a voting lottery (with a stick and a carrot to spur voters to take responsibility for themselves and their government.) Bravo to Spence for writing something that steps beyond what today's political leaders put forward as radical changes yet have the end result of maintaining the status quo. He really thinks we can CHANGE things and be powerful and independent again.

To prepare for this book I recommend reading, "ClosedChambers", by Edward Lazarus. It is not a light romp, theinformation is too disturbing, as he reveals for us the 9 Wizards Of Oz that literally enter the courtroom of "our" highest court from behind a curtain. "Give Me Liberty!" is understandable, not because it's structure or ideas are simplistic, rather because a Master Storyteller by the name of Mr. Gerry Spence has amongst his gifts the ability to pull back the curtain and show all of us the basic concepts that we think we live under. Mr. Spence loves this Country, and I believe he is driven by a deep sadness to write this book because he knows what this Country can be, what it should be. But all he can do is write a book, subject himself to critics who, not satisfied with attacking his ideas, attack him. I love this book, probably more than all his other works. He shares with us how we have gotten to where we are, and for the moment, in my opinion, let's put it aside for a bit, and read, contemplate and dream with Mr. Spence. I want to be part of his vision, do you? EARN WHAT IS YOURS! END

This book is full of wisdom. Many authors are quick to criticize our laws and our government. Few are willing to offer solutions. But one, Gerry Spence, has given solutions that are insightful, novel, and NEEDED. This is a must read for any American.

One of the true originals of the 21st century to hit the book stores. With lyrical style, Gerry writes again with passion and fire to all those that still have that ever important question, are we free? This book has inspired me to open my eyes and to free the self. It's one of those rare books that can also change the intelligent mind...

The first half of the book was excelent in saying that it's not government or corporations that oppress us, it's both. This concept seems alien in the US, where people are mostly whining about just the government. However, toward the middle of the book, his theme gets repeatative, and then the "dreams" he has at the end seem to run against what he stated earlier in the book. True, these ideas are supposed to bring more freedom, but for the most part they are more rules and regulations that inevidably be stacked upon the millions of other rules that create large beauracracies like goverment and mutlinational corps. It seems like he had a good idea going, and then just got lazy. If it weren't for the strength of the begining theme, I would have given this book 2 or 3 stars.

This book should serve as an antidote to all the ditto-heads out there, as well as to all the annoying Democrats who think that their party is somehow pure. This book shows how both parties are bought and sold by big business, and how our government is run for the benefit of corporations instead of people. Mr. Spence clearly elucidates the trail that we've followed to get to this point in our history, and offers many imaginative ideas on how to get our government working for us again. While many of these ideas might seem radical, upon reflection they would certainly go a long way toward remedying many of the societal ills that both liberals and conservatives complain about. The ideas of the founding fathers were no less radical two hundred odd years ago. I think that the book is well written, and I would highly recommend it to people of all political persuasions.

Spence delivers what is, in every way, a truly powerful book. He shows the injustices in our society and teaches how to free ourselves from them. As a student of law, this book moved me in ways that I never knew a book could. Excellent!!!

As a great admirer of Gerry Spence's other books, I found this one disappointing. While Mr. Spence, once again, presents deep insights into the bondage we Americans suffer as a result of corporate power, greed and our personal bondage to material things, this book is not a seamless "read". Filled with far too many historical quotes, the book almost seems to have been written by two people. It's as if a hired researcher wrote the historical references and Mr. Spence wrote the insightful comments. The total effect is one of a college research paper, where the professor demanded many historical facts to back up the key points. This left the whole piece too padded with documentation. Not ever having gone through the creative pleasure and also the agony of writing a book, much less the many books that Mr. Spence has written, it's awfully easy to be so critical. But having experienced such a fabulously written book as The Making of a Country Lawyer, one of Mr. Spence's other books, Give Me Liberty was disappointing in style rather than substance. Perhaps The Making of a Country Lawyer was written from the heart, where Give Me Liberty, while, partly written from the heart, was in great part, far too academic.

I have enjoyed Gerry Spence's advocacy of the downtrodden. I read From Freedom To Slavery with joy at its simple wisdom. But now he has given me a book that is too long for its theme, not as well-written as his previous tomes, and full of ideas antithetical to his self-proclaimed devotion to freedom. I could overlook some of his earlier paranoia and anti-liberty views in the context of his overall framework in other books, but here he suggests people be forced to vote, that citizens be banned from helping candidates they support, and that his one-time foe, Government, control more of our lives. The man has lost any concept of freedom, and why government is what Washingon called "fire."

This book is going to shock libertarians, both civil and economic. If you respected Spence for his "let-me-live-free" attitude, this book will give up any positive feelings for his opinions. Thank goodness he's still a good lawyer.