July 4: “Liberty as Independence”

By Mark Tooley on July 3, 2025

Here’s distinguished British intellectual historian Quentin Skinner discussing his new book Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal, specifically relating it to America’s Declaration of Independence. Skinner prefers the view of liberty from America’s Founding, which stressed freedom from servitude, over later interpretations of liberty, which stressed freedom of action. The former, he says, extols “government of the people, by the people, for the people. And I think that’s a strength which we need to hold on to. But I also think that in our contemporary civil society, that way of thinking about liberty is much more alert to dangers to liberty in civil society.” I hope you enjoy his talk. Below are both video and podcast audio.

Democracy | The Latest

Mark Tooley is IRD’s president and editor of IRD’s foreign policy and national security journal, Providence. Prior to joining the IRD in 1994, Mark worked eight years for the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and is a native of Arlington, Virginia. He is the author of Taking Back The United Methodist Church, published in 2008; Methodism and Politics in the 20th Century, published in 2012; and The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War, published in 2015.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markdtooley

Providence is the only publication devoted to Christian Realism in American foreign policy and is primarily funded by donors who generously help keep our magazine running. If you would care to make a donation it would be highly appreciated to help Providence in advancing the Christian realist perspective in 2025. Thank you!

Events & Weekly Newsletter Sign-up

Receive the weekly email for all the latest content.