Freedom: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture

by Orlando Patterson

Argues that the concept of personal freedom developed as it did only in the Western world because of the role of women, along with slaves and foreigners, as outsiders, but that the Christian concept of spiritual freedom led to the justification of social hierarchies

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics, Sociology, Race, Research

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Orlando Patterson is John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University; the author of Freedom in the Making of Western Culture, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and Slavery and Social Death; and the editor of The Cultural Matrix: Understanding Black Youth, for which he was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. His work has been honored by the American Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association, among others, and he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as Special Advisor for Social Policy and Development to Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica.

Reviews

[Boria Sax · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this book had ended after about the first half, I would have given it four, or perhaps even five, stars. It begins with a grand panorama of history, focusing on the concept of freedom from ancient times to the present, which is informed by impressive scholarship. Having placed American exceptionalism in question with account of the slave trade, Patterson then attempts to restore confidence in it by means that are not very scholarly at all. He argues, very dubiously, that humankind's greatest evil, by a dialectical process, has produced its greatest good in American culture (a sort of argument that might equally serve the successor's of Stalin's Russia or of Nazi Germany). The final parts of the book consists of gushing over celebrities such as Dennis Rodman, Madonna, and Michael Jordon, who Patterson views as a living confirmation of American cultural superiority. This reads less like serious scholarship than a series of spots for People magazine.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patterson, a Harvard Professor who made his bones writing about slavery in the New World, turns his focus to the roots of the "value complex" we Americans call "freedom". Although this is volume one of a two volume set, the author himself refers to the second volume as a "footnote" in the history of freedom.

Patterson discusses four different time periods and their impact on the development of freedom. First, the Greeks, next, the Romans, third, Christianity and fourth The Middle Ages.

Cabining his discussion of all four time periods are two guiding precepts. FIrst, that western freedom consists of three constituent elements which combine to make Western freedom "chordal". The elements are sovereignal, civic and personal freedom. Patterson goes to great length to demonstrate that while modern thinkers (post enlightenement) equate "freedom" with personal and civic freedom, the type of freedom most people were familiar with back in the day was, in fact, "sovereignal" freedom, which can be described as "freedom through absolute devotion to a god/king/emperor/leader" through which the followers remain free.

The second main insight is that a "slave society" is a pre condition for the development of freedom. In other words, freedom developed from the yearnings of slaves to escape bondage. In that way, freedom, the west's greatest achievment is bound up in the unspeakable evil of slavery. I found that particular insight illuminating.

Worthy of a read, although it takes a while to muddle through. Patterson is fond of both the academic "we" and citing extensively from specialist scholars. On the whole a worthwhile investment of time. Extensively footnoted for follow up reading

[E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a remarkable achievement.

One is impressed by the sheer breadth of this work. The number of disciplines in which Patterson is well read, evidences understanding, and is able to synthesize--sociology, history, philosophy, classics, literature, theology, biblical studies. His chapters on Saint Paul demonstrate that he had read some of what at the time were the leading scholars on Paul and scholarship that was then new and paradigm shifting, but before the paradigm had fully shifted. One would expect someone not an expert in a field to only know the conventional understanding not the latest groundbreaking ideas.

One is also impressed by his analytical abilities, the way he structures an argument, and the eloquence he musters.

And there is the power and originality of his theses, the core one of which is that freedom, the central value of the Western world, is intimately tied to the history of slavery. And that the dark side of freedom has been carried into contemporary debates.

Other of this theses are also original and compelling, such as that it was women who first prioritized freedom and women who elevated personal freedom again at the close of the Middle Ages and the dawning of modernity.

A truly remarkable book.

[Mark Carley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stars for the writing quality, but five for the thought quality. Dr. Patterson is an academic writing for academia, so his prose are a bit ponderous and I was constantly having to stop and look words up. But, his ideas are insightful. He begins by defining 3 kinds of freedom; personal (the one we probably think of first - the right to do whatever I want as long as I don’t violate the rights of others ), civic (the right to participate in the governing process) and sovereignal (the right to command others). He then contrasts freedom with its opposite (slavery). Interestingly, he does not look at African slavery in the Americas (although I understand he does that at some length in other books), but at pre-literate societies, Ancient Greece and Rome, early Christianity and up through the Middle Ages. He also discusses the notion of freedom in a spiritual sense (submission to the will of God resulting in the ultimate freedom on earth). We all have our own sense of what freedom means to us, and this book really challenges us to think more deeply about what freedom means.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

This book was solid all the way through and linked a lot of eras in western civ that you don't get a lot of transition between, traditionally: from Rome into the medieval era, for example, or how the ideologies of Christianity changed from its early years. I really recommend this one.

[Nikita Nikishin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing rich and detailed piece of scholarship. It is Herculean to take on such a difficult subject, yet Patterson exceeds.

Would be fascinating to see a continuation of this story in analyzing how freedom stopped being a uniquely Western value and metastasized into a global one.

[BJ Cefola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read for understanding sovereignal freedom and its deep roots in western culture.

[backstreets · Rating 5 out of 5]

a must read by everyone tbh

[Will Meyerhofer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating "big idea" here - that the whole concept of personal freedom emerged from slave states, in reaction to the fact of widespread slavery. In other cultures, personal freedom meant unattachedness, and usually a terrible fate. But in ancient Athens, pulling together all the slaveholders with the non-slaveholding "freemen" contributed to a sense of unity in opposition to the slaves. Unfortunately, the book devolves into a lengthy history of Greece, Ancient Rome and early Christianity instead of a more boiled down analysis of this central idea. The most interesting thing going on in my head as I read this was a running comparison between ancient Greece and the antebellum South - Patterson alludes to this parallel here and there, but he could have done so much more. There's a reason the ancient Greeks and men like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were so obsessed with personal freedom - they owned slaves and lived in a society largely consisting of people kept in bondage. Interesting that the Republicans now are so obsessed with personal freedom - the Libertarian movement on the Far Right, for example - while all the while keeping the poor in economic bondage. But little of that made it into this book, alas.

[Matthew Quest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Orlando Patterson's Freedom is an outstanding survey of the history of ideas which is rooted in Ancient Rome, Classical Athens, and deep Biblical readings. It's discussion of the distinction between the Jesus movement and the establishment of Christianity; Plato, Aristotle, and Pericles' roles in debates about the Athenian democratic experiment; and his eye for gender issues in classical literature is outstanding. Often an aware winning book, commended by the mainstream scholarly associations, is not the most distinguished book in reality -- especially when considered over time.
This book continues to be wonderful and a mine of ideas which provokes serious thought. It's the kind of book that should be part of one's core readings and one that someone can evolve and grow with.

[Richard Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freedom: Freedom in The Making of Western Culture by Orlando Patterson (1991)