Liberty Books

"Los pensadores de la libertad" is based on a series of lectures given by the author in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), in Argentina, about liberalism and its most important thinkers.

Mariano Grondona is an important Argentinian journalist and university professor, who has also written other books. In the preface to this book, he says that while teaching he was looking forward to learn, and to find the answer regarding some questions that were haunting him. He studied the Liberal Tradition, and payed special attention to re-reading and re-evaluating the books of the main representatives of that tradition.

This book is a direct consequence of the time Grondona dedicated to studying the Liberal Tradition. It is conceived as an starting point in order to understand many authors, linked by their preoccupation with freedom, and their contributions to liberalism. The author examines the lives and works of John Locke, Adam Smith, I. Kant, Alexis de Tocqueville, J. S. Mill, J. B. Alberdi, Max Weber, Karl Popper, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, among others.

This book is very entertaining and easy to read, but it also leads the reader to the sources, recommending several books of those written by each of the analyzed authors. In my opinion, "Los pensadores de la libertad" is a keeper, and I strongly recommend it to you, if you are interested in the History of Political Thought.

Belen Alcat

James Schleifer's book gives one a wonderful insight into the mind of one of the great social scientists writing about America and Democracy. From reading the book I deduced that De Tocqueville is a social scientist before Marx! He compares European culture and government with the fledgling culture and democracy he observes in America. He is very much impressed with what he sees taking place in America in the 1830's and hopes it will spread to Europe. He at first believed that America's prosperity was simply due to geography and their distance from powerful neighbors, he abandons this idea after his visit to America. He comes to realize that the West is not being peopled "by new European immigrants to America, but by Americans who he believes have no adversity to taking risks". De Tocqueville comes to see that Americans are the most broadly educated and politically advanced people in the world and one of the reasons for the success of our form of government. He also foretells America's industrial preeminence and strength through the unfettered spread of ideas and human industry.

De Tocqueville also saw the insidious damage that the institution of slavery was causing the country and predicted some 30 years before the Civil War that slavery would probable cause the states to fragment from the union. He also the emergence of stronger states rights over the power of the federal government. He held fast to his belief that the greatest danger to democracy was the trend toward the concentration of power by the federal government. He predicted wrongly that the union would probably break up into 2 or 3 countries because of regional interests and differences. This idea is the only one about America that he gets wrong. Despite some of his misgivings, De Tocqueville, saw that democracy is an "inescapable development" of the modern world. The arguments in the "Federalist Papers" were greater than most people realized. He saw a social revolution coming that continues throughout the world today.

Schleifer in his book ably shows how De Tocqueville realizes at the very beginning of the "industrial revolution" how industry, centralization and democracy strengthened each other and moved forward together. Schleifer's book convinces me that not only is De Tocqueville still the preeminent observer of America but is also the father of social science. As a retired Army officer and student of political philosophy, I find this book is a must read for anyone interested in American history, political philosophy or the social sciences.

Describes the benefits of the incredible mangosteen fruit, perhaps the most powerful health product in the world today. Must reading for anyone concerned about their health and wellness.

Lyberty Hyde Bailey, one of the first of Cornell University's long line of distinquished botanists has written some of the most important plant identification books in the library. All of his books are treasures to serious botanists and all are hard to find. Many of Bailey's books were used as textbooks but many were never resold; they are that valuble to botanists worldwide. This book is no exception. A valuable reference, it is used as a key to identify genus and species of many cultivated plants by providing such details as petal number, sepal number and location, fruiting habit, stamens and pistil appearance and placement and many more details necessary to plant identification. Bailey even includes the name of the scientists who gave the plant its first binomial nomenclature (the genus and species). Get this one if you can.

If you collect amate art this book is essential. For collectors of outsider art Professor Cowan provides an economic and cultural insight into the motives of the artists and the integral role they play in the culture. Highly readable, with wonderful anecdotes, what could be a dry subject is transformed into a page-turner.

The stories behind the illusive mask in this historical romance anthology offer a mysterious thread that stretches across almost 75 years. From 1792 to 1865, the same feathered mask appears in the lives of four different heroines, all from different stations of life, who encounter relationships that aren't what they seem. The authors beautifully tied their stories together with colorful characters, rich settings, and heartfelt drama. It was a delight to step back into the past and experience all four of these romantic adventures! Congratulations to Bonnie Blythe, Pamela Griffin, Tamela Hancock Murray, and Jill Stengl for crafting such a fascinating collection of stories!

If faith is seen as the fundamental orientation of human existence to the mystery we know as God, the goal and fulfilment of that faith cannot be measured with the instruments of human calculation. Faith of that order lives by hope, above all by the courage that lies at the heart of hope; and the Spirit. If a person courageously and freely responds to the impulses of the Spirit, then he or she is a true believer, even though - measured by life's mundane rules - he or she is a failure, or cannot fully accept all the Church's formal articles of faith. Even in the midst of the manipulations and deadness of the organized world, social or ecclessiastical, the individual can preserve his uniqueness and prevail against all darkness. This is the message of these powerful meditations. Writing at the height of his powers, spiritual and conceptual, Rahner addresses himself to central problems of the Christian life today: faith as courage; tolerance in the Church; freedom and manipulation in society and the Church. He offers the only valid blue-print for the Church now and to come: the divine plan of freedom and the Spirit.
--- from book's back cover

Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon lived with facts and so he died, defending the most illustrious concepts of anarchy suffering hunger, and poverty, finally executed in a Missouri jail. I really suggest this book, 'cause inside it theere are many teachings of how human beings can depend on imagination, not in plitical parties.

I enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to learn folk stories. These were stories that my own parents had forgotten about from their childhood. It was nice to share this book with my parents as well as my younger family members. In the future, I would like to teach my own children not only Mother Goose nursery rhymes but also stories from their family's homeland. And the illustrations were wonderfully detailed and enjoyable to look at while reading the story in English or Tagalog.

John Stuart Mill sets the stage for all liberal political thought. He discusses such topics as the role of society over the individual, the role of the individual over society, the death penalty, the importance of the individual, the ideal voter, the ideal citizen, the role of women in society, and the importance of personal liberty. Alan Ryan superbly organizes this edition by also including some constructive criticisms of Mill's thought in the last partition. This book is an excellent edition for any student of political philosophy.