Liberty

I love history, because history makes for some good reading. And if there is one history book that I truly love, it is The Story of Liberty by Charles Carleton Coffin. We used this as a textbook when I was in high school.

First published in 1879, the book chronicles the struggles of mankind to resist tyranny and seek after personal freedom, most often the freedom to worship God as one sees fit. Beginning with the Magna Charta, and ending with the first American colonies, Coffin touches on a tremendous amount of Western history, from Martin Luther's 95 Theses to the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, from the Inquisition to the Armada and Sir Francis Drake, from Papal corruption to the youth of Captain John Smith.

If you are looking for a comprehensive text of world history, you won't find it here, and be warned that Coffin is not terribly forgiving of the Catholic establishment of the era, sitting solidly in the Reformation camp. But don't let any of this stop you from picking the book up. Coffin's style is brilliant, charged with feeling and irony, without becoming preachy. He "tells it like it is," giving the straight facts, often in the present tense (i.e. something like, "Elizabeth is now the queen, but she has many enemies in Europe"). Though The Story of Liberty runs the serious risk of making you hopping mad at tyrants everywhere, there is always a silver lining; for every defeat and for every penalty laid upon those who choose to think for themselves, there is hope of a better future.