WASHINGTON -- We are entering a new year, the true third millenium. Unfortunately, the prospects for liberty do not burn bright. Human history is largely one of tyranny. The history of the last couple thousand years has been largely one of combatting tyranny.

This process is explored by Jim Powell, the editor of Laissez-Faire Books, in "The Triumph of Liberty." Published by the Free Press, "Triumph" documents the growth of freedom through the lives of liberty's heroic defenders.

"Liberty is a rare and precious thing," writes Powell. History has seen mostly war and slavery, dictatorship and serfdom.