Yearning for Liberty - Johnson, Donald L

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Résumé :
A broad and deep examination of this thing called Liberty.
This is not a political book in the sense of Democrat/Republican - Liberal/Conservative. Rather it is a survey of history in the context of Liberty - the blessings of having liberty and the horrors in the absence of liberty. In Yearning for Liberty, the author explores various facets of Liberty. Relying heavily on first person accounts, history and some of his own personal experiences and friendships, Johnson examines a broad sweep of time and geography beginning with the Biblical Exodus. He continues through the American Revolution; the American Civil War and the aftermath of the long struggle in gaining liberty for the freed slaves. Then, modern day events and nations are examined such as the Normandy invasion of World War II; the 1956 Hungarian Revolution; the fall of South Vietnam to the communist North, and the subsequent mass evacuation from Saigon. The stunning contrast between the two Koreas is highlighted. Combining first person accounts with plenty of pictures, Johnson weaves an eye-opening story of what having liberty looks like - its value, as well as the grim reality of what the lack of liberty brings to nations, individuals and the world at large - its cost. These first-person accounts are taken from various sources such as memoirs and diaries of French citizens experiencing the brutal Nazi occupation and the liberation at Normandy France. He tells the story of his personal friend and US Navy shipmate, Adam von Dioszeghy who at age 7, along with his mother, experiencing World War-II in the street outside their apartment in Budapest as the battle raged between the occupying German army and the Soviet Red Army with allied bombers raining hell from above. Following the war, they endured years of oppression under communist rule. In 1956, Adam became a freedom fighter and joined the Hungarian Revolution. This resulted in him and his mother becoming refugees in a new country where Adam obtained two degrees from Stanford University and became a Vietnam veteran and thrived for many years as an attorney before retiring and returning to his home country of Hungary.