Liberty and Freedom

Liberty and Freedom follows two closely related political ideas from British colonial culture and the American Revolution through emancipation, industrialisation, immigration, world war and the civil-rights era. Fischer distinguishes changing popular meanings of liberty and freedom rather than treating them as fixed philosophical abstractions.

Paintings, prints, flags, monuments, photographs, advertisements and political emblems show how competing groups claimed the same ideals for different purposes. The result is a visual cultural history of symbols such as the Liberty Tree, the American flag and the Statue of Liberty, and of the continuing struggle over who may exercise the freedoms they represent.