Freedom Book of the Month for August 2000:
The Triumph of Liberty: A 2,000-Year History, Told Through the Lives of Freedom's Greatest Champions
by Jim Powell
Free Press, 2000, 575 pp.

In truth, I wish I had had two months to spend on Jim Powell's "The Triumph of Liberty," giving a day to each of its more than sixty capsule biographies and inspirational portraits. Reading just one a day is guaranteed to do wonders for the soul. Unfortunately, I must leave that pleasure to the readers of this review; in order to be timely, I was forced to enrich myself a a faster pace.

The history of the last 2,000 years is replete with examples of men and women who have staked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor on the idea of human freedom. Beginning with Cicero, Powell offers both the broad outlines and the charming minutae of their lives in a manner useful both as inspiration and reference. The philosophers, the revolutionaries, the writers, artists, musicians, and leaders come to life on every page. So do their ideas.

Naturally, not everyone included in the book is recognizably a "libertarian" in the modern sense: Some of them contributed to freedom in only a limited or singular way, but contribute they did, and Powell takes the broad view in including figures as disparate and seemingly unrelated as Ronald Reagan and Ludwig van Beethoven.

"The Triumph of Liberty" deserves an honored place on anyone's bookshelf. It will not only come in handy as a well-researched reference to the lives of important historical figures, but is perfect for those times when one's own struggles need to be placed in the perspective of those who have walked the path before.

Order "The Triumph of Liberty" from Laissez Faire Books for $22.95

July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch

June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman

May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben

March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand

February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler

January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood

Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz

November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell

October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy

September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe

July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman

June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant

May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz

April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary

February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra