Herbert J. Muller examines the meaning of freedom in the great civilizations of the past including the Sumerian, Egyptian, Minoan, Assyrian, Persian, Phoenician, Greek, Roman and early Christian. Ranging from the attempts of the cave man to free himself from the tyranny of nature through magic and ritual, to the religious despotism of Byzantium, the author surveys freedom's gains and triumps, its losses and failures. In doing so, he provides the reader with new insight into the meaning and destiny of freedom in Western Civilization.