The Roots of Liberty is a critical collection of essays on the origin and nature of the often elusive idea of the nature of liberty. Throughout this book, the original and thought-provoking views from scholars J C Holt, Christopher W Brooks, Paul Christianson, and John Phillip Reid offer insights into the development of English ideas of liberty and the relationship those ideas hold to modern conceptions of rule of law. Ellis Sandoz's introduction details Fortescue's vision of the constitution and places each of the essays in historiographical context. Corrine C. Weston's spirited epilogue evaluates the essays' arguments.

This volume presents a comprehensive exposition of both the prehistory and medieval history of the whole of Scandinavia. The first part of the volume surveys the prehistoric and historic Scandinavian landscape and its natural resources, and tells how man took possession of this landscape, adapting culturally to changing natural conditions and developing various types of community throughout the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The rest - and most substantial part of the volume - deals with the history of Scandinavia from the Viking Age to the end of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (c. 1520). The external Viking expansion opened Scandinavia to European influence to a hitherto unknown degree. A Christian church organisation was established, the first towns came into being, and the unification of the three medieval kingdoms of Scandinavia began, coinciding with the formation of the unique Icelandic 'Free State'.