Historians.. What does this sentence mean?

Question

“The story of freedom is not a mythic saga with predetermined beginning and conclusion, but an open-ended history of accomplishment and failure, a record of people forever contending about the crucial ideas of their political culture” ...


I'm reading
The Story of American Freedom
By Eric Foner..

And, I think that's his thesis..

also if u can make a prediction:

in the first chapter he talks about the birth of american freedom that freedom was born in the revolution he also talks about the freeborn englishmen, owning land to vote, women not being able to vote, democratizing freedom... how does this topic prove or support the thesis?? ... i kno its hard to answer this ...


also, in the second chapter he talks about slavery and the republic.. he goes in deep details.. how do u think the topic of slavery supports or proves his thesis...





PLZ HELP PLEASE HELP ME .. SOMEONE EXPLAIN ...

THNX .. GOD BLESS !

Answer 1

Basically, the story of freedom is still an unfinished story, it isn't a single event, but a series of steps taken and yet to be taken to continue to try and acheive this ideal. You could even make an arguement that we have regressed at times and may even be doing so now...

Answer 2

That sentence expresses the same ideology that was prevalent when the Greeks experimented with democracy as a result of the philosophical debates that were taking place at the time of the Greek Philosopher. (4th & 5th Century BCE)

Democracy evolved from the free discussion of ideas. There is a phenomenon taking place in Europe and some parts of North America called Philosopher's Cafe or Plato Cafe which are basically free wheeling debates in a coffee house atmosphere to try and emulate the ancient Greeks and attempt to take Democracy to its next evolution (Direct Democracy) or "Full Democracy" as a solution to the theocracies and the totalitarian backlash to the "right" and "left" in dealing with the Muslims and the Christian Fundamentalist movement.

So the history of Freedom is no a fairy tale with an ending already written. It is an "open ended" debate that could go either way. If we can be shut up from expressing our views "freely", by the pressure of the "vocal" tyrants, then we will have lost our freedom without a shot being fired. The evolution of democracy (voting on issues or "direct democracy") will come out of these debates or we will atrophy as a society and revert to a "totalitarian" Orwellian state where the cabales and the religious fundamentalists control the agenda of the state through fear and intimidation. That fear can be physical fear of what is called "intellectual terrorism" or threatening "damnation" or "hell" in the afterlife.

Keep expressing you ideas without fear or with 'courage" and the tyrant will have lost and our democratically gained "freedoms" will thrive for the next centuries even when we seem to lose our "privacy" because of the technology's taking over the defense of the planet from the "extremists".

We are going to have to accept that we will have information on us out there but we can assure through controlling our democracy by voting on issues that the information can't be used against us the "law abiding" citizens and that the information will protect us from the "extremists" of every stripe..

LONG LIVE THE INTERNET and the technology

INFORMATION will set us free... but only if we are brave and free and do not give up on our right to "free speech" and free association" etc...by ourselves through fear...

These are the days of the death throes of extremist religions and the birth of "logical" and rationalizations of our desire for the UNITY of ALL LIFE

Cyril Borg, the Cyborg.

Answer 3

The sentence you identify might very well be his thesis. The two examples you provide later on sound more like background/history/context for whatever he discusses in the chapter. So these things do not necessarily directly support his thesis, but the claims he makes later in those chapters most likely do.