Summary Of Empire For Liberty By Richard Immerman

Richard Immerman’s Empire for Liberty focuses on the trajectory of six figures who are major figures in the era that they served. Using friends, family, and political associates to connect one figure to the following. All six were born into the same elite group that has been in power since the beginning, undergoing many political events, but always following the same message; the empire for liberty. In his book, Empire for Liberty, Immerman continually returns to the idea that America is and always has been an empire and the extension of America’s territory and influence has always been connected to expanding the sphere of liberty. Liberty has been interpreted so broadly and in many different contexts that it has all but lost its meaning. A theme that reoccurs is that liberty is misused and abused as part of empire. This initially begins with the blatantly obvious lack of liberty for black slaves and the native populations.
A quick look through Franklin’s chapter showed that he was a large supporter of the British Empire and his decision of an American empire over Britain’s was one of his most difficult, agonizing decisions. In the American revolution Franklin’s goal was “to create the institutions under which ordered liberty could thrive.” It never occurred to Franklin to grant Indians the liberty to remain and it never really occurred to him that the Canadians were at liberty to resist envelopment by the growing American empire. He also denied liberty to his