MAGNA CARTA: THE BIRTH of LIBERTY (audiobook) by Dan Jones

 





















The Magna Carta is commonly considered to be the founding document of Western Democracy. Many believe that there is a direct line goes from the Magna Carta to the Enlightenment (17th and 18th centuries) to the Declaration of Independence (1776) to the Bill of Rights in the American Constitution (1791)  to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1791) to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Jones believes that there is a whole lot of truth to this. but he spends a lot time explaining why the "direct line" is not as straight as many think.

King John (1166-1216) signing the Magna 
Carta in 1215. 
Jones does an excellent job of explaining the political situation in England that led to the Magna Carta in 1215 in reasonable, layman terms. Once the reader understands how the system was supposed to work, Jones demonstrates that King John abused the system to raise gobs and gobs of money to fund unpopular wars and, more importantly, to punish political enemies. In some cases, he completely bankrupted well-connected families - and that's when the noble families united to confront the king.

Jones also explains the provisions of the Magna Carta in modern English and how King John started successfully pushing back against its restrictions almost immediately. 

Jones is a believer that the Magna Carta is a predecessor to the documents like the Declaration of Independence and does spend time explaining the Magna Carta's influences on the modern world.

The author read this audiobook and did a good job with it. This was an enjoyable and educational audiobook. I rate it 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: MAGNA CARTA: THE BIRTH of LIBERTY (audiobook) by Dan Jones.


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