It is a common saying that thought is free. A man can never be hindered from thinking whatever he chooses so long as he conceals what he thinks. The working of his mind is limited only by the bounds of his experience and the power of his imagination. In this book J.B. Bury examines the freedom of thought throughout history from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th century. Contents: Reason Free (Greece And Rome) Reason in Prison (The Middle Ages) Prospect of Deliverance (The Renaissance and the Reformation) Religious Toleration The Growth of Rationalism (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries) The Progress of Rationalism (Nineteenth Century) The Justification of Liberty of Thought

John Bagnell Bury (1861 1927) was an Irish historian, classical scholar, Medieval Roman historian and philologist. He objected to the label "Byzantinist" explicitly in the preface to the 1889 edition of his Later Roman Empire. He held the position of Erasmus Smith's Professor of Modern History at Trinity College Dublin.