William Lloyd Garrison, America's greatest fighter against slavery, never wavered in his "impossible battle" against every form of injustice. A poor, self-educated son of a drunken seaman, young Garrison was without money, power or influence in the 19th-century America as he began his attack on slavery. Yet within a decade his newspaper, the Liberator, gave birth to a growing movement that echoed its editor's ringing demand for immediate emancipation. Reviled by political and financial leaders, the center of controversy even among his allies, his life under constant threat, he lived to see vast numbers take up the causes he championed. Despite his turbulent public career, he believed in nonviolence and was a gently, loving husband and father. Garrison's idealism and determination offer inspiration to a new generation grappling with difficult questions of conscience and social action. From the book