Uncle Sam and Miss Liberty

It is a bold scholar who claims to have written Alexis de Tocqueville's unrealised vision of a cultural history of liberty and freedom in America. In this ambitious and impressive volume, David Hackett Fischer does just that, probing the meaning of these values as cultural rather than philosophical entities. American political culture and Americanism as an ideology are defined by these fundamental beliefs, but what, Fischer asks, do liberty and freedom really mean to Americans, and how have these meanings evolved with each generation?

In Liberty and Freedom , a magnificently illustrated book, Fischer takes us on a fascinating journey from the pre-revolutionary period through to post-9/11, uncovering how different groups in American society have understood these contested concepts, mobilised in their defence and clashed, often with bloodshed, over the substantive implications of competing definitions.

Far more than the visual history indicated in the title, Fischer's ethnographic investigation explores liberty and freedom as folkways and reveals their symbolic power as instruments of communication in support of particular interpretations. The reader is guided through a discussion of the origins of concepts and of how symbols of liberty flourished and united colonists during the pre-revolutionary period. America's search for national emblems constitutes a fascinating story. Fischer's account of the changing face (and shape) of Miss Liberty and the emergence of popular icons such as Uncle Sam, Yankee Doodle and even Rosie the Riveter are engaging elements of his cultural history.

The malleability of liberty and freedom are illustrated vividly in Fischer's account of southern visions of hierarchical liberty that, without any conception of irony or hypocrisy, favoured slaveholders' liberty to own slaves. Rejecting the conventional wisdom that the Civil War constituted a struggle between liberty and slavery, Fischer regards it as a collision between competing and "irreconcilable" understandings of liberty and freedom. The protean nature of these values likewise is illustrated through the seemingly contradictory presentation of authoritarian freedom during the First World War, as Miss Liberty metamorphoses from a fresh-faced girl to Amazonian warrior and Uncle Sam assumes an intimidating posture.

Numerous episodes, from the anti-Bolshevik Palmer raids following the First World War to the present-day War on Terror, are evidence of how readily Americans are willing to retreat from the principles of freedom and liberty in the name of protecting these values. Fischer is keen to point out that leaders on the political Left have been no less - and possibly more - willing to engage in acts of repression than those on the Right. But the experience of repression, according to his analysis, inspires a fresh demand for freedom and liberty and, as repression has eased across time, progressive reactions have strengthened.

Two interrelated questions may nag the reader throughout this book. First, how fundamental and persistent are these values of liberty and freedom when their meanings change so readily and their causes depart so radically? Are freedom and liberty persisting and defining American concepts or are they nominal referents and national symbols? At what point does the fluidity of meanings prevent a value from being singular and possibly fundamental? Second, are these ideas the engine of history in the way Fischer suggests, or are they the instruments of political propaganda? Are these ideas more, and how much more, than emotive cues that can mobilise an American audience in support of a multitude of contradictory causes? The struggle between the many interpretations of freedom and liberty are, to Fischer's mind, responsible for the durability and expansion of both values. But he addresses neither of these critical questions, though both lie at the heart of his argument and the larger set of claims he seeks to generate.

The influence of ideas might be more convincing if discussed explicitly in relation to power and material interests. Fischer notes that early 19th-century America had "the largest and most profitable system of race slavery in the world", where capital returns on southern plantations exceeded those in northern factories. Yet he seems to accept the rhetoric of liberty and freedom as independent and primary explanations for action above and beyond material interests.

The unchallenged power of ideas also leads Fischer to generate a number of more specific theses that would benefit from empirical support. One such assertion is that the party with "the strongest and most compelling vision of liberty and freedom" generally rides to electoral victory. The failure of the Democratic Party and the American Left has been to "allow the Right to claim the mantle" of these twin values. These assertions will prove foreign to students of American elections, who focus closely on bread and butter, war and peace, and individual-level variables and, intuitively, a party's ability to claim greater authority on matters of liberty and freedom seems likely to derive from its delivery of economic and political stability.

The conclusion of Liberty and Freedom may be premature and could have been developed with greater precision. What Fischer offers us is a linear, episodically punctuated, progressive expansion of liberty and freedom through time. Each new generation enjoys an enlargement of their liberty.

Though times of stress, uncertainty and threat lead to a subordination of these values and retraction of these rights, in the aftermath of repression, freedom and liberty flourish with renewed vigour. For this conclusion to be convincing, we need a better understanding of the limits to liberty, the competing values that Americans hold dear and the institutional and political influences on their restriction.

An alternative scenario, and one that may be more consistent with Fischer's emphasis on competing understandings of liberty and freedom, is that some liberties and freedoms expand while others become less compelling and retreat. Though the curtailment of freedoms on the basis of group identities has lessened over the centuries, the same case could not be made with regard to freedom from government or its instruments of surveillance.

This scenario offers a less linear and expansionary history of liberty and freedom and instead emphasises how values mutate in meaning, appeal and effect.

Despite these reservations, Fischer has produced a work of fine, accessible scholarship. This book is an indispensable reference for students and scholars of American history and politics from the pre-revolutionary period to the present and should attract readers with an interest in the power of ideas, political symbolism and cultural analysis. Historical episodes are selected with logic and understanding and woven together with considerable dexterity. The project is boldly conceived and impressively executed.

Fiona Ross is senior lecturer in politics, Bristol University.