Customer Reviews

The Story of Liberty: So You Will Comprehend What Liberty Has Cost, ...and What It Is Worth

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Despite what others may have said about this book's qualities regarding homeschooling it remains one of THE best books on the foundation of American culture. The author attempted and succeeded to remain unbiased when writing upon matters of religion (i.e. Roman Catholic Church vs. Protestant Church). However, the obvious wrong done by the Roman Catholic Church during the Roman Inquisition (not just the Spanish) is made quite clear. Yet the author does not leave the Protestant church without some blame, for they did promote violence, wars, and some measure of persecution. The book does accomplish its goal by making the reader understand what liberty is and what it has cost. No homeschooling Christian (or otherwise) child should be without this book.

While the perspective in this book seems decidedly Protestant, Coffin's focus is on the progress of men out of the stifling opression of freedom in the dark ages (esp.by the Catholic Church)to the freedom we may take for granted today. He tells the stories of various people who were willing to give up everything for the principle of freedom of thought.

On the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre-

"Catherine hastens to Charles' chamber once more. He is sitting in a chair, moody, angry, silent. He has acquiesced in the plan until now; but as the hour for its consummation approaches, is irresolute. It will be so mean to have the old admiral, and others who hace confided in his word, assassinated. Poor weakling that he is, there is still left a little of his better nature. The education that he has received from his mother - that the end always justifies the means - the school of falsehood in which he has been taught, has not quite obliterated all sense of what is right and honorable."

This book reads like a novel, not a history book. It is such a page turner that my children wore out one copy and have begun on another!

I read this for pleasure, not for home schooling. It was outstanding! A fast and easy read, easily relating together the events over the past 700 years. Cofing clearly illustrates the slow struggle of the human race towards freedom ... tieing events together in a literary time-line. With such a clear conception of the tyrrants of the past, one can't help but draw parallels with contemporary tyrrants. I wish I had read this when I was in school. I am recommending it to all of my friends.

This book was written in 1879 and reflects a common intrepratation of English history at the time. Indeed, it is very similar to the view the founding fathers took of the events covered in this history. All too often, it is assumed that modern interpretations of history are somehow objective and unbiased. All historians write from their worldview, and there is nothing that says a naturalist/atheistic perspective is somehow more valid than the perspective that God directs that events of history for a purpose. The latter view is much closer to what was held by many of the people (Reformers, Pilgrims, & Catholics) that this history is about, and therefore, in my opinion, is capable of a deeper understanding of the motivation of these people to act against injustice. It is by reading books written by people in ages other than our own that we gain the perspective necessary to analize our own cultures assumptions and beliefs.

This is the best book about History that I've ever read. Though teaching facts like a normal History book does, this book is written as a story. It starts with the Magna Charta and goes through history until the Pilgrims. There is a great section on the reformation.

The book is easy to read, and very intriguing. It has great drawings to help emphasize and illustrate main points. Both children and adults will enjoy and learn about History from this book.

I thought this was a wonderful book. I loved the author's introduction as well as the publisher's. I did come away with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for those who have struggled so much for the freedom to "think for themselves". Some parts are very difficult to read due to the brutality of the rulers of the day. It was touching to see that as the individual was able to read the Bible for themselves and not rely upon the teaching of the priests etc. that the desire for freedom grew as their knowledge of Christ grew. Christ is the "Light of the World" and this book makes that apparent.

GREAT book, we read it to our children and learned right along with them. History told in a story-like fashion, lots of interesting details, must have for the home library!

Wonderfully written and easy to read for late elementary through highschool.

Coffin writes this book like the journalist he is. The theme of liberty is followed without a lot of irrelevant information. The details he does include adds to the feeling of being there as a reporter would about a current event. His writing style is much like that of when he covered the civil war, sharp and descriptive, in fact a little gruesome at times when describing the tortures, decapitations, and burning. He uses original sources to confirm his observations, e.g. bills for fire wood, axes for executions, lists of the thousands killed for daring to defy the priests and popes. It is not a book for the weak, and squeamish or for those that that don't want to think that the church and the pious are incapable of vicious acts.
The print is a little unclear with some letters smudges. It looks like a photocopy or original typing on an old Olivetti. Some of the words are archaic and send you to the dictionary.

All in all it is a quick history of not just liberty but of civilization. It shows the cost of defying authority by those that wish to have freedom of thought. It reminds us that the intolerance and inhumanity is not much different today, only the means and methods. That the Church had many similarities to Islam's violence of today. Believe by the sword. A good book to revisit and trace history quickly.

Coffin descends from a family of reformers who had to move to Boston to escape persecution and from Boston to Nantucket for the same reason. This may explain the passion with which he tackles the history of Liberty.

I am an avid reader and this is my favorite book of all time. So much of our history has been distorted and watered down. It is tragic that we have to go back to an earlier age to get the real scoop. This book should be required reading in all our schools.