Of humankind's great achievements over the past 2,000 years, one towers above all the rest: the arduous, painstaking process of wresting liberty from tyranny's iron fist. The Triumph of Liberty chronicles this inspiring story through sixty-five biographical portraits. From the millions of men and women whose struggles and successes have made freedom possible, Jim Powell has chosen a few talented, courageous individuals whose lives illustrate the triumphing will of the human spirit. Some of these people, like Martin Luther King, Jr., remain famous; others, like John Lilburne, who spent most of his adult life in prison battling England's infamous Star Chamber, are almost unknown. Some of Powell's choices—Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis L'Amour—may be surprising. Others still—like Milton Friedman or Margaret Thatcher—are controversial. Woven together, their moving life stories tell a brilliant epic saga of the triumph of liberty as a whole.
For more than thirty years, Jim Powell has gathered material for The Triumph of Liberty. He has interviewed scholars, pursued research in major libraries, visited booksellers, museums and historic sites around the world. Powell has written for several dozen publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and EsquireNew Individualist Review, he helped publish articles by future Nobel Laureates F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and George J. Stigler as well as other libertarian authors. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and is editor of Laissez Faire Books, the world’s largest source of books on liberty. Powell lives with his family in Westport, Connecticut.
