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Title: Pioneers Of American Freedom Author: Rudolf Rocker Date: 1949 Language: en Topics: history, United States of America, liberalism, individualism Source: Retrieved on 9/12/2021 from https://libcom.org/history/pioneers-american-freedom-rudolf-rocker
ix TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE has been distinctive of the greatest American
leaders. In Rocker's viewpoint we may see that American philosophy as an
exceptionally gifted European liberal sees it and sees us. The author's
personal experiences as a German exile for long periods of his life with
the hardships endured for the sake of his opinions have not embittered
him. On the con-trary, he is infused and sustained by deep convictions
that freedom is an attainable environment that produces the greatest
good for mankind, a theme which he has expressed in a larger book
entitled "Nationalism and Culture." That work deserves to be better
known than the works of Spengler, Pareto, or Toynbee, which are more or
less fas-cistic or reactionary expressions of social philosophy but of
like historical scope. He has lived a life rich in friend-ships amidst
his practical labors as an editor, journalist and literary man, as will
be related in his forthcoming "Memoirs." It is a refreshing experience
to know him as one trained and actively working in the atmosphere of
radical movements who has developed and preserved an objective and
balanced emotional and intellectual attitude toward all human events, a
powerful advocate of a cause who has not lost his head or become clouded
in his vision, but rather has attained a consistent view of history
which meets contradicting viewpoints with due measure of their
significance and undertakes to refute them not with rhetor-ical cliches
but with factual and logical reasons. This im-portant book is only a
lesser one of his many profound writings. Those who have promoted the
publishing of this book, which has already become known by translation
in Spanish, hope to make the American public conscious as well of the
value of Rocker's other writings for interpretation of the concept of
democracy not only as an expression of freedom ix TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
in the long history of mankind but also as preeminently the best
environment for human achievement. Among those to whom special
acknowledgment of as-sistance is particularly due are H. Yaffe, Cassius
V. Cook, Sadie Cook, and Dr. Frederick W. Roman, of the Rocker
Publications Committee, who have borne the burden of finance and
initiative in producing this and other works of Rocker. ARTHUR E. BRIGGS
Los Angeles, California
More recent events, notably the Alliances of World War II, have created
great confusion concerning the meaning of democracy, as well as
emphasizing the distinctions between
Philosophical Anarchism in America