author
Frederic May Holland
1836–1908
A Boston-born writer and former Unitarian minister, he turned his wide reading into lively books about liberty, religion, philosophy, and public reform. His work ranged from ancient thought to modern politics, including a biography of Frederick Douglass.
1 Audiobook
Liberty in the Nineteenth Century
by Frederic May Holland
About the author
Born in Boston in 1836, Frederic May Holland graduated from Harvard in 1859 and entered the Unitarian ministry a few years later. He left parish work in 1874 and devoted himself more fully to writing and lecturing.
Holland wrote with a strong interest in ideas and freedom. His books included The Reign of the Stoics (1879), The Rise of Intellectual Liberty from Thales to Copernicus (1885), Frederick Douglass: the Colored Orator (1891), and Liberty in the Nineteenth Century. Together they show a writer drawn to moral debate, history, and the long struggle for intellectual and political liberty.
He died in 1908. Even from this brief record, he comes across as a serious but accessible author who wanted big historical and philosophical questions to matter in everyday public life.