A very interesting anthology of history segments, essays and fiction chronologically encompassing the rise and development of societal ideas about political and personal liberty. What's particularly fascinating is the fact that, as the collection was published in 1941, many of the "contemporary" writers were still very much in tune with 19th century thinking and the evolution of national consciousness from early- to mid-20th century. As you go through these essays, you really get an idea of the fact that American democracy was, even in 1940, still considered an experiment, one that might or might not turn out to work when all was said and done. Especially enlightening for me was "Democracy," an address given by writer/diplomat James Russell Lowell in 1884 while he was serving as U.S. Ambassador to England, including:

"Not a change for the better in our human housekeeping has ever taken place that wise and good men have not opposed it, have not prophesied with the alderman that the world would wake up to find its throat cut in consequence of it. The world, on the contrary, wakes up, rubs its eyes, yawns, stretches itself, and goes about its business as if nothing had happened."

Other highlights include "The Indispensable Opposition," a 1939 essay by journalist Walter Lippman, and an enlightening biographical sketch of Oliver Wendell Holmes by Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant. ( )