![]() ![]() East West Street by Philippe Sands After the second world war and the horrors of the Holocaust, the world experienced a too-brief moment of clarity. You may not agree with the destination, but the ride is worth taking.ħ. There is no danger of Rand concealing her political philosophy – it is woven into the fabric of the book and in the brash symbolism of its characters: socialism and collectivism bad individualism and free expression of talent good. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand Who is John Galt? If you want to understand different ideas of freedom, and particularly “muscular individualism”, you can do a lot worse than read Rand’s bombastic and messy opus. Photograph: Oscar White/Corbis/VCG/Getty ImagesĦ. It is only by uncovering injustices that we can hope to repair them. How can women be equal in society when it is quite literally built for men? From the size of a smartphone to the design of medication, the book exposes the gender bias built into the most basic elements of our lives. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez This book by feminist campaigner and author Criado Perez shows how freedom is often restricted in hidden ways. ![]() This and Sachs’ other books beautifully interweave his personal story with that of South Africa, where he was ultimately responsible for a series of legal judgments that served as a model for international constitutional courts.ĥ. Mandela appointed him as a founding member of the South Africa constitutional court. He had been in enforced exile in Mozambique, but ultimately returned to his country, South Africa, after the release of Nelson Mandela. ![]() The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter by Albie Sachs Albie Sachs is a lawyer and anti-apartheid activist who lost an arm and an eye when his car was blown up in 1988. Freedom is somewhat subjective, but the point of human rights is that there are some non-negotiables – the right to education is one of them. The youngest ever winner of the Nobel prize, she fought for female education and was shot in the head by the Taliban as a result. The best books help us experience the world through somebody else’s eyes – and few have experienced as much as Yousafzai has in her short life. He asked me last night what a suicide bomber was. I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai My 12-year-old is reading the teen edition of this book at school. Photograph: Kate Green/Getty Images for BoFģ. I also recommend Adichie’s recent Reith lecture on freedom of speech. She becomes a successful blogger about race, and then returns to Nigeria where she is now “Americanah”, another kind of other. As she moves from Nigeria to the US to study, Ifemelu experiences dislocation and racism, discovering that she has suddenly become a “Black person”. As the Old Testament says: treat the stranger well as we were all, once, strangers in a strange land. The challenge for large societies is to find common ground – a broad enough idea of freedom to include everyone. Humans have a tendency to “other” the immigrant. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The immigrant tale has often been intertwined with the story of freedom. Through their friendship they navigate their personal journeys through family, tradition and, ultimately, truth.Ģ. Reuven and Danny, modern and ultra-Orthodox Jews respectively, are from different sides of the religious track – teenagers who follow the same religion but may as well be from different planets. Potok beautifully describes the personal anguish of growing up, learning that others are different from you and trying to respect that difference while still holding fast to your values. ![]() The Chosen by Chaim Potok Freedom of religion was one of the first rights to be protected by law, probably because for thousands of years we have fought and killed because of it. Here, I have chosen a mixture of books that show us what freedom is and others that tell more frightening stories of freedom being taken away.ġ. How was it that only eight of 109 laws were debated in parliament before they came into force at the moment Matt Hancock signed them? Why did so many officials and politicians break the laws they set for everyone else? Our freedoms are hard-earned – if we don’t face up to what happened during the pandemic, the next emergency could be much worse. My new book, Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why It Matters asks the not-so-simple question: how on earth did it happen? I consider the first two extraordinary years of the pandemic through more than 100 laws which imposed lockdowns, gathering restrictions, self-isolation rules, mandatory face coverings, hotel quarantine and more. ![]()
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