FREEDOM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

FREEDOM - Essay Example In his work, â€Å"The Story of American Freedom,† Foner traces the idea of freedom in the United States from the past to the present and illustrates the different meanings that it has taken in its transformation to the present day concept. The concept of freedom has evolved during the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the modern context, freedom can be perceived as the universal right of equality to all human beings, irrespective of their race, color, gender or sexual orientation. Freedom is the birth right, but to the Americans it was bought about by the Civil War. Foner says that other people also value freedom, but the idea is having more prominence in the public and private discourse in the United States than any other country. In the past, the idea of liberty was something between the natural liberty and the moral liberty. People considered liberty as the freedom to do only what is good. By the eighteenth century this concept was changed in the Atlantic world. Thus, the id ea of freedom evolved to the concept that if religious liberty means obedience to God, civil liberty meant the obedience to law.