Revisiting Ancient and Modern Liberty : On de Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History
(2021) In European Journal of Political Theory 21(1). p.197-207- Abstract
- Annelien de Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History is a rich and thought-provoking work in intellectual history, tracing thinking and debating about political freedom in the West from ancient Greece to our own times. The ancient notion of freedom as self-government (what Quentin Skinner calls neo-roman liberty) is referred to as the ‘democratic conception’. The argument is that this conception survived through the renaissance, the early-modern period and the 18th-century Atlantic revolutions only to be deliberately scrapped in the 19th century in favour of liberal freedom – absence of state interference – thus severing the ancient links between freedom and democracy and turning democracy into a threat to freedom. The book is an impressive... (More)
- Annelien de Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History is a rich and thought-provoking work in intellectual history, tracing thinking and debating about political freedom in the West from ancient Greece to our own times. The ancient notion of freedom as self-government (what Quentin Skinner calls neo-roman liberty) is referred to as the ‘democratic conception’. The argument is that this conception survived through the renaissance, the early-modern period and the 18th-century Atlantic revolutions only to be deliberately scrapped in the 19th century in favour of liberal freedom – absence of state interference – thus severing the ancient links between freedom and democracy and turning democracy into a threat to freedom. The book is an impressive achievement and the use of sources staggeringly wide. However, though the liberal turn is certainly a fact of history, I am not convinced that it was such a decisive break, nor that the relations between conceptions of freedom and attitudes to democracy are as clear-cut as de Dijn needs them to be. De Dijn claims, with regret, that the liberal view remains our view and is now an essential part of Western civilization, but I find that to be empirically under-substantiated. By using the liberal turn to define an age, de Dijn lets history play out through the lens of the elite. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/5e0e2ddd-cc6c-4b4f-98c3-6d76d28fb0b9
- author
- Halldenius, Lena LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- liberty, freedom, liberalism, republicanism, liberty, freedom, liberalism, republicanism, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Atlantic revolutions, democracy, renaissance, humanism
- in
- European Journal of Political Theory
- volume
- 21
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 11 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85106229097
- ISSN
- 1741-2730
- DOI
- 10.1177/14748851211017103
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5e0e2ddd-cc6c-4b4f-98c3-6d76d28fb0b9
- date added to LUP
- 2022-02-01 17:11:11
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 15:37:18
@article{5e0e2ddd-cc6c-4b4f-98c3-6d76d28fb0b9,
abstract = {{Annelien de Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History is a rich and thought-provoking work in intellectual history, tracing thinking and debating about political freedom in the West from ancient Greece to our own times. The ancient notion of freedom as self-government (what Quentin Skinner calls neo-roman liberty) is referred to as the ‘democratic conception’. The argument is that this conception survived through the renaissance, the early-modern period and the 18th-century Atlantic revolutions only to be deliberately scrapped in the 19th century in favour of liberal freedom – absence of state interference – thus severing the ancient links between freedom and democracy and turning democracy into a threat to freedom. The book is an impressive achievement and the use of sources staggeringly wide. However, though the liberal turn is certainly a fact of history, I am not convinced that it was such a decisive break, nor that the relations between conceptions of freedom and attitudes to democracy are as clear-cut as de Dijn needs them to be. De Dijn claims, with regret, that the liberal view remains our view and is now an essential part of Western civilization, but I find that to be empirically under-substantiated. By using the liberal turn to define an age, de Dijn lets history play out through the lens of the elite.}},
author = {{Halldenius, Lena}},
issn = {{1741-2730}},
keywords = {{liberty; freedom; liberalism; republicanism; liberty; freedom; liberalism; republicanism; Ancient Greece; Ancient Rome; Atlantic revolutions; democracy; renaissance; humanism}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{197--207}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{European Journal of Political Theory}},
title = {{Revisiting Ancient and Modern Liberty : On de Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14748851211017103}},
doi = {{10.1177/14748851211017103}},
volume = {{21}},
year = {{2021}},
}