Taking Stock of Taking Liberties

Why, having generated so many early and influential constitutional statements and exported Bills of Rights, has the United Kingdom entered into the twenty-first century without a constitution of its own? In Taking Stock of Taking Liberties, eminent historian Linda Colley attempts to investigate this question and offers an evocative interpretation of the major British Library exhibition of the same name. Discussing some of the extraordinary and moving documents and images on display—all of which illuminate struggles over rights and liberties, from the Magna Carta to the present—the author traces the evolution of the cult of British freedom, demonstrating how in the past it was often at odds with issues like actual access to the vote, disparities of geographical experience, and modes of rule throughout the British empire.