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Culminating an initiative launched here nearly 15 years ago, the Center for the History of Freedom in Arts & Sciences has announced plans for the 15th and final volume in its landmark series chronicling the birth and development of basic human freedoms.
"This will complete the first effort to treat the evolution of modern freedom," said Richard W. Davis, Ph.D., professor of history and director of the center since 1989. "It will not be the last such history to be attempted, but our volumes and the favorable critical reception they have received show that we have raised a number of interesting and important issues. We certainly trust and hope that the investigation will go on elsewhere."
The writing of the final volume, titled "Realms of Freedom in the Modern Chinese World," is scheduled to begin in the 2000-2001 academic year. It will be edited by noted Chinese scholar William C. Kirby, Ph.D., a former dean and professor in Arts & Sciences here and currently a professor of history at Harvard.
Kirby will write one of the 12 chapters in the volume, as will William C. Jones, LL.B., J.S.D., the Charles F. Nagel Professor Emeritus of International and Comparative Law here. Jones, a leading Chinese legal scholar, will write on "Chinese Law and Liberty in Comparative Historical Perspective."
The history of freedom project was launched here in 1985 by J.H. Hexter, Ph.D., a specialist in British history who taught at Washington University and other leading American universities for more than 60 years. Hexter taught here from 1957 until 1964, when he moved to Yale. He returned to Washington University in 1978 as Distinguished Historian in Residence and subsequently became the John M. Olin Professor of the History of Freedom in Arts & Sciences. He retired in 1990 and died in 1996 at the age of 86.
Hexter envisioned a long-term scholarly endeavor that would result in a multi-authored, multi-volume history of the making of modern freedom, and he founded the center to carry out the project. Hexter served as the first general editor for the series and as the editor of the first volume, which explored origins of liberty and the parliament system in England during the 17th century. Davis has served as general editor of the series since 1989.
When complete, the one-of-a-kind 15-volume series will trace the history of modern freedom from its 17th-century Western origins in England and the Netherlands to its current somewhat erratic and uncertain emergence in China. Contributors to the series are brought together from different areas of history and the social sciences and asked to add their perspectives toward a unified volume on a specific issue.
While the series necessarily began with Western Europe, volumes in it have moved to follow modern freedom as it emerged, or was struggled for, in other parts of the world. One volume considers ideas of freedom in Asia and Africa; another explores migrations -- both forced and unforced -- over the past three centuries.
Later volume editors have included two other Washington University historians -- Davis and David Konig, Ph.D., professor of history and director of the Legal Studies Program. Other Arts & Sciences faculty who have contributed chapters to the project include Derek M. Hirst, Ph.D., current chair of history and the William Eliot Smith Professor of History; Richard J. Walter, Ph.D., professor and former chair of history; and Douglass C. North, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor in Arts & Sciences, professor of economics and 1993 co-recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.
The final volume is being supported through a $100,000 grant from the Henry R. Luce Foundation. Other support is coming from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, a longtime and generous supporter of the project, and from personal gifts by Carolyn and Joseph Losos of St. Louis and by Betty and Forrest Steiner of Phoenix.
Published by the Stanford University Press, the "Making of Modern Freedom" series has appeared thus far primarily in hard cover. One volume on the French Declaration of Rights of Man of 1789 has been published in paperback, and plans call for other volumes to be reissued in this format to make them more accessible to scholars and as course books.
The most recent volume to be published is "Terms of Labor: Slavery, Serfdom, and Free Labor," edited by Stanley L. Engerman. It will be followed by "Women, Privilege, and Power," edited by Amanda Vickery, which currently is with the publisher.
Davis expects the final volume on China to be one of the most interesting of the series.
"In terms of freedom's future, China may be the most important nation in the world right now," Davis said. "If the Chinese state takes a turn in another direction, then the whole status of freedom in our society could be endangered."
