Tyrannies are sown at times when nobody is very watchful, where everybody has a full stomach, where everything is calm, nothing much appears on the surface. And then tyrannies show up and become very obvious when individuals, growing a little hungrier, a little less possessed of production, suddenly notice that there is somebody saying they mustn’t talk, somebody saying they mustn’t have opinions. —L. Ron Hubbard

To overcome tyranny is to win freedom as a people, a nation or even Mankind. Yet to benefit fully from their liberties, each man and woman must also be free—as individuals.

In regard to freedom as a nation, here is the remarkable story of how one man, the Athenian statesman Pericles, envisioned a better future for Mankind—a future free from tyranny. Thus developed a principle at the heart of modern civilization—specifically, that the individual citizen has a right to his own opinions, a right to be heard and a right to know and participate in government. Moreover, as new tyrannies emerge to threaten those rights, here is a crucial message for our times and all times.

Then again, toward the full attainment of that better future, here also is Mr. Hubbard’s personal story of how he kept his discoveries about the human mind out of the harness of a modern tyranny. And, in consequence, how individuals today can achieve a level of personal freedom never before possible.

Here, then, is how Mankind can at last reap the full benefits of the magnificent heritage that has meant liberty for more than 2,000 years.