The Cato Institute Bookstore: Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man Now Available Nationwide

The Cato Institute Bookstore

NOW AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE

As the nation pauses to remember Frederick Douglass on the bicentennial of his birth, the Cato Institute is proud to publish a new biography—Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man. Timothy Sandefur’s insightful and compelling new book offers a fresh look at Douglass’s life and inspirational legacy.

Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass rose to become one America’s preeminent intellectuals and activists, who as a statesman, author, lecturer, and scholar helped lead the fight against slavery and racial oppression.

Unlike many other leading abolitionists, Douglass embraced the U.S. Constitution, believing it to be an essentially anti-slavery document that guarantees that individual rights belong to all Americans, of all races. Further, in his most popular lecture, “Self-Made Men,” Douglass spoke of people who rise through their own effort and devotion rather than through the circumstances of privilege. “Personal independence is a virtue,” declared Douglass in this lecture, “but there can be no independence without a large share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed.” Embodying his beliefs, Douglass taught himself to read, then taught himself the principles of political philosophy, and then rose through his own efforts to become one of the nation’s foremost intellectuals. A remarkable self-made man.

Frederick Douglass: Self-Made Man provides us with a sharply focused view into the mind and life of one of America’s greatest thinkers.
“From Timothy Sandefur’s elegantly written new biography, the reader gains a profound education in the life and thought of Frederick Douglass, one of the most heroic and insightful champions of liberty in this or any nation’s history. For a concise introduction to the greatness of Douglass, one could do no better than to read this book.”

-Peter C. Myers, Author of Frederick Douglass: Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism.
About the Author

Timothy Sandefur is vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He previously served as a litigator at the Pacific Legal Foundation, where he won important victories for economic liberty and property rights in states across the nation. He is the author of four previous books: Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century, The Conscience of the Constitution, The Permission Society, and The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law.

Available at Cato.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and bookstores nationwide
   
Support Cato

Follow Cato on:
Facebook
Twitter
Google Plus
YouTube
Cato Institute • 1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW • Washington, D.C. 20001 • Phone (202) 842 0200