Liberty and the Path of History

Palmer discusses the history of the fight for freedom and the importance of individuals who stand up in defence of liberty.

Tom G. Palmer

Tom G. Palmer is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, director of the Institute’s educational division, Cato University, Executive Vice President for International Programs at Atlas Network, and author of Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice, among other works.

History doesn’t have a direction. It isn’t a steady movement toward any particular point. Instead, Tom G. Palmer argues, the history of progress—the historical growth of liberty—stops and starts, and often moves backwards. Thus, it is on those occasions when people stand up for their rights that we are most likely to see liberty flourish.