Ensuring Liberty by Promoting Youth Development: Essay Review of Liberty: Thriving and Civic Engagement Among America's Youth by Richard M. Lerner

'Our children are our future' is a phrase often used to promote or justify investment in children. In Liberty: Thriving and civic engagement among America's youth Richard Lerner, focusing on youth, examines what this phrase means in terms of the societal commitment needed to realize positive outcomes to human development. Furthermore, this phrase is most often couched in economic terms. Labor needs qualified workers. If people do not appropriately produce and contribute to the economy, our ranking as a world economic leader will suffer. Lerner on the other hand examines the implications for civil society. We cannot maintain a democratic society without the adequate and appropriate participation of citizens. If societies do not support youth's development into citizenship, they as adults will not flourish as citizens and our liberty will be threatened. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]