"Liberty is a bold and courageous work from one of America’s most eminent psychologists. With its groundbreaking integration of theory and research, it offers vision, hope, and most importantly, a call-to-action. How we respond has mighty implications for America’s future."
-Peter L. Benson, Ph.D., President, Search Institute, Minneapolis
Liberty: Thriving and Civic Engagement Among America’s Youth examines what it means to develop as an exemplary young person - that is, a young person who is thriving within the community and on the rise to a hopeful future. The book explores several key characteristics of positive youth development such as competence, character, confidence, social connections, and compassion that coalesce to create a young person who is developing successfully towards an "ideal" adulthood, one marked by contributions to self, others, and the institutions of civil society.
In this unique and groundbreaking work, author Richard M. Lerner brings his formidable knowledge of developmental systems theory and facts on youth development to analyze the meaning of a thriving civil society and its relationship to the potential of youth for self-actualization and positive development. This book argues that a young person’s ability to thrive is enabled by a society that supports the rights of individuals to develop their abilities as best they can and that a civil society supporting individual freedom and justice can only exist when the people in that society act to support, protect, and extend the societal institutions affording such liberty for all of its citizens.
Liberty looks closely at how integrated moral and civic identity typically emerges in the adolescent stage of human development, a time when a person’s self-definition is undergoing significant changes. The book explores different programs and policies that promote positive youth development, the most successful ones being those that cultivate adult to youth relationships, establish skill-building, and provide the opportunity for youth participation and leadership.
Liberty is a dynamic book for scholars and professionals in the areas of developmental psychology, education, human development and family studies, and other related social and behavioral science fields. The book will also be of interest to policy makers, practitioners working in governmental and non-governmental organizations, undergraduate and graduate students planning to pursue careers working with youth, or anyone interested in learning about positive youth development.