The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in Locke’s Political Thought

The enduring appeal of liberalism lies in its commitment to the idea that human beings have a 'natural' potential to live as free and equal individuals. The realization of this potential, however, is not a matter of nature, but requires that people be molded by a complex constellation of political and educational institutions.
In this eloquent and provocative book, Uday Singh Mehta investigates in the major writings of John Locke the implications of this tension between individuals and the institutions that mold them. The process of molding, he demonstrates, involves an external conformity and an internal self-restraint that severely limit the scope of individuality.
"The imprint of Locke's work on contemporary debates is made newly visible in this elegantly written and compelling study which moves between past and present, history and theory, Locke and Locke's progeny. I have rarely read a book which so profoundly altered my understanding of its subject."
-- Anne Norton