Critics and Crusaders

Political Economy and the American Quest for Freedom

The quest for freedom has always been a defining characteristic of the American people. That neither constitutionalism nor capitalism has secured complete freedom for every person is demonstrated by media announcements of slavery, oppression, exploitation, and a variety of shortcomings in the economic system. That said, and as this volume seeks to demonstrate through a history of radical commentaries, there have always been bold spirits who fight for such ambitious heights.With changing times, freedom meant different things to those who worked for it. This book in its broadest sense is a history of libertarianism. Each of the libertarians in this full study, extending from William Lloyd Garrison to Eugene V. Debs, fought for the ideal of political economy as a practical ideal. In so doing these major figures at the margins of power expanded the entire field of human rights. Charles A. Madison concludes that radicalism became an ideology in the search for freedom.The zeal and activity of these figures did much to attain the political freedom and economic well- being that Americans are inclined to take for granted. These individual chapters are set in frames supplied by background sketches of the movements each group led, and the whole is an attempt to depict and re-evaluate America's social progress without the rigor or formality of impersonalized history.