The Changing Contours of American Freedom: An American History

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Give Me Liberty!offers a narrative of the facts of American history,but it is also an interpretation.It emphasizes the events, individuals, and themes that I consider most important.It attempts to pay due attention both to prominent leaders and to the experience of ordinary Americans and the diverse groups that make up American society.

《美國歷史：理想與現(xiàn)實(shí)》是一部關(guān)于美國歷史事實(shí)的敘事，但它同時(shí)也是一種歷史解釋。它所強(qiáng)調(diào)的事件、個(gè)人和主題，在我看來，都是美國歷史上最為重要的。它希望既關(guān)注那些聲名顯赫的領(lǐng)袖人物又關(guān)注平凡普通的美國人的經(jīng)歷，并關(guān)注那些構(gòu)成美國社會的不同群體的經(jīng)歷。

[2]The unifying theme of freedom integrates the narrative.Americans are hardly the only people on earth to cherish freedom, of course.The past century has witnessed struggles for freedom in countries across the globe.But given the central place the idea occupies in American life, no one can understand American society without coming to terms with its history in the United States.

[2]將這部敘事連貫起來的是自由這一主題。美國人當(dāng)然不是地球上唯一的熱愛自由的人民。20世紀(jì)見證了發(fā)生在世界上不同國家的爭取自由的斗爭。然而，正是因?yàn)樽杂傻乃枷朐诿绹钪姓紦?jù)了中心的位置，如果不了解自由在美國發(fā)展和演變的歷史，我們便無法懂得美國社會。

[3]Attention to clashing definitions of freedom and the struggles of different groups to achieve freedom as they understood it offers a way of making sense of American history as a whole.Freedom is the central word in Americans’ political language.But freedom is not a fixed, timeless category with a single unchanging definition.Rather,the history of the United States is, in part, a story of debates,disagreements and struggles over freedom.Crises like the American Revolution, the Civil War,and the Cold War have permanently transformed the idea of freedom.So too have demands by various groups of Americans to enjoy greater freedom.The meaning of freedom has been constructed not only in congressional debates and political treatises, but on plantations and picket lines, in parlors and even bedrooms.For some, freedom has been what some scholars call a “habit of the heart,” an ideal so taken for granted that it is lived out but rarely analyzed.For others, freedom is not a birthright but a distant goal that has inspired great sacrifice.

[3]關(guān)注自由概念本身擁有的相互沖突的定義，關(guān)注不同群體如何為爭取自己所理解的自由而進(jìn)行的斗爭，是一種將美國歷史作為一個(gè)整體來理解的方式。在美國的政治語言中，“自由”是一個(gè)核心詞。自由并非只有一種亙古永恒的表現(xiàn)形式，它的定義也不是單一的或固定不變的。事實(shí)上，美國歷史的相當(dāng)一部分就是一個(gè)圍繞自由而展開辯論、表示異議和進(jìn)行斗爭的故事。類如美國革命、美國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)和冷戰(zhàn)等危機(jī)永久性地改變了自由的思想。不同群體為享有更大的自由而提出的要求也同樣改變了美國自由的內(nèi)涵。自由的內(nèi)涵不光是通過國會辯論和政治學(xué)說來建構(gòu)的，而同時(shí)也是通過發(fā)生在種植園內(nèi)、罷工糾察線上、普通人家的客廳里甚至臥室中的事件得以建構(gòu)的。對一些美國人來說，自由一直是一種被學(xué)者所稱的“心靈習(xí)性”，一種人們可以理所當(dāng)然地享受，卻很少去分析和研究的理想狀態(tài)。然而，對于另外一些美國人來說，自由不是一種與生俱來的權(quán)利，而是一種雖然遙遠(yuǎn)但能激發(fā)他們?yōu)橹龀鰳O大犧牲來爭取的目標(biāo)。