(Download) "Equality, Liberty’s Lost Twin" by Kenneth Lawing Penegar ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Equality, Liberty’s Lost Twin
- Author : Kenneth Lawing Penegar
- Release Date : January 22, 2019
- Genre: Political Science,Books,Politics & Current Events,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 840 KB
Description
Inequality seems to be the only topic under discussion today. But what do we actually mean by equality, and what did the American Founders have in mind?
This work is a history of ideas and at the same time a parallel study of social and political dimensions. The book should be of particular interest to public officials as well as commentators on contemporary issues and to educators at the college level.
Prof. Penegar presents a composite picture of both historic and contemporary understandings of the ideal of equality and of the policy initiatives undertaken to advance the ideal over the same expanse of time.
What do we mean by equality, in America, and how are we doing? This book outlines both historic and contemporary understandings of the ideal of equality, and it presents the major policy initiatives undertaken to advance the ideal over the same expanse of time.
So much has been published in recent decades about inequality -- principally in economic terms -- that it seems timely to examine what it is that moves us to be concerned.
From Rousseau to Martin Luther King Jr., significant individuals who authored the ideas, crucially supported them, or carried them into public policy are identified in the context of the eras in which they were active.
The claim that we collectively care more about liberty than we do equality is implicit in the title of this book. Consider first that the Declaration of Independence claims that ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ are inalienable rights that stem from the endowment of reason. No mention of equality there, although a preceding phrase in the same paragraph does famously declare that we are ‘created equal.’
Consider, secondly, that one (if not the very first) negative response in contemporary American political debate to a proposed extension of public assistance or raising the minimum wage is the argument that it will reduce liberty. The suggestion is direct: extending the one will reduce the other. They are competitors. That’s the claim.
Prof. Penegar leads an insightful discussion of such commonly-held thoughts and investigates how accurate they are.