What does liberty entail? How have concepts of liberty changed over time? And what are the global consequences? This book surveys the history of rival views of liberty from antiquity to modern times. Quentin Skinner traces the understanding of liberty as independence from the classical ideal to early modern Britain, culminating in the claims of the Whig oligarchy to have transformed this idea into reality. Yet, with the Whig vision of a free state and civil society undermined by the American Revolution of 1776, Skinner explores how claims that liberty was fulfilled by an absence of physical or coercive restraint came to prominence. Liberty as Independence examines new dimensions of these rival views, considering the connections between debates on liberty and debates on slavery, and demonstrating how these ideas were harnessed in feminist discussions surrounding limitations on the liberty of women. The concept of liberty is inherently global, and Skinner argues strongly for the reinstatement of the understanding of liberty as independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Awards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Winner, 2025 Choice Awards<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018The ideal of liberty as independence from arbitrary power was hegemonic from the Roman Republic to the Age of Revolutions until it was rapidly, and seemingly irreversibly, replaced by the reigning notion of liberty as the absence of restraint. No one has done more to excavate the genealogies of these two concepts of liberty than Quentin Skinner. Liberty as Independence draws on decades of research and reflection to present a magisterial account of the anti-democratic and counter-revolutionary displacement of liberty as self-rule and of the prospects for recovering independence as a critical political value.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n David Armitage – Harvard University<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018In this spectacular book, Skinner takes his story of neo-Roman freedom into the Enlightenment, showing why one view of freedom overturned another, and what was lost in that displacement. Skinner casts a chilling shadow over our current liberal dispensation, opening up an alternative vision of democratic freedom \u2013 one that has the power to transform the lives of all those who are subject to the arbitrary will of another.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hannah Dawson – King\u2019s College London<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018In this rich and masterly excavation of liberty in political thought, Quentin Skinner shows how liberty understood as independence was vanquished in the liberal era. With brilliant clarity and unmatched attention to the powerplay behind intellectual discourse, he unveils the liberal victory as the loss of an egalitarian and democratic ideal.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lena Halldenius – Lund University<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Quentin Skinner extends his powerful account of liberty as independence, from classical roots into the eighteenth century\u2019s sermons and novels as well as pamphlets and treatises, and in the hands of abolitionists among others. Skinner argues that the ideal was ultimately overturned by opponents of the radical movements it inspired.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melissa Lane – Princeton University<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018We live in the midst of democratic crisis but these tend also to be times when purposive change becomes possible. This is why Liberty as Independence is such a significant book that urgently needs to be engaged with. There is no better guide to liberty and its history in free states than Quentin Skinner. He remains the most lucid of writers and the most brilliant of intellectual historians.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Whatmore – University of St Andrews<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Skinner’s argument is timely and welcome’<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonathan Clark Source: Times Literary Supplement<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018a book of fantastic depth and breadth, full of good learning and effortless erudition, which is sure to become an instant classic.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yuan Yi Zhu Source: The Critic<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018remarkable \u2026 the book’s extraordinary scope is matched by a bold thesis’<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Bourke Source: Literary Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Brilliant.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indira Ghose Source: Times of India<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018In this dazzling work of intellectual history, Skinner offers a sweeping account of the politics and philosophy of the idea of freedom as it unfolded in its multiple and contested versions, from ancient Rome through the Enlightenment and the age of democratic revolutions to today\u2019s fraught moment.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n G. John Ikenberry Source: Foreign Affairs<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018\u2018Liberty as Independence\u2019 continues Quentin Skinner\u2019s field-defining scholarship in the history of political thought. This is an important book and in some ways Skinner\u2019s most personal. \u2026 Like each of his past works, \u2018Liberty as Independence\u2019 is required reading for all students and scholars of politics, the history of ideas, and political discourse. \u2026 Essential.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n J. Wigelsworth Source: Choice<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Liberty as Independence is a brilliant book.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Whatmore Source: Society for U.S. Intellectual History<\/p>\n\n\n\n Publisher: Cambridge University Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n Publication date: 06 February 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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