Summary

In "Introduction": "Stop Here If You Want to Talk About Freedom," Nelson outlines her reasons for wanting to write about freedom. Though she understood the many arguments against writing such a book, she "still couldn't quit it" (4). She believes the word freedom "operates . . . like 'God'" (4). When discussed, people are unsure of the dimensions of what they are discussing. She agrees with Ludwig Wiggenstein's "famous edict" that "the meaning of a word is its use" (4, Nelson's italics). Freedom, she decides, is like "a reusable train ticket, marked . . . by the many stations, hands, and vessels through which it passes" (4). Nelson wants to understand the routes it has taken (5).

In "A Crisis of Freedom," Nelson traces the ways in which freedom has been captured "by the right wing" (5). She also considers how freedom is used as a synonym for liberation or emancipation...