The Call of Freedom

In this powerful new collection of stories and oil paintings, President George W. Bush spotlights courageous men and women and their struggle for freedom.

Over the past two decades, freedom and democracy have come under serious attack in alarming ways. Increasingly brutal regimes punish anyone who resists their autocratic power. But anywhere despots and dictators oppress their people through fear and violence, political prisoners and dissidents are also there, strengthening their societies as they bravely resist and fight back.

In The Call of Freedom, President George W. Bush brings together forty-four full-color portraits of men and women from around the world who have been persecuted for their ethnicity, gender, political positions, and religious beliefs, alongside stirring stories of how they have fought for justice and human rights.

With a foreword by author and former Soviet prisoner Natan Sharansky, this collection introduces readers to dissidents such as Rushan Abbas, who is fighting for the release of her sister, Gulshan Abbas, a retired Uyghur doctor detained by the Chinese government; Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, a Catholic bishop imprisoned for “crimes against spirituality” by the violent Nicaraguan government; Jina Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian activist stopped by morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly in Tehran, and whose murder sparked nationwide “Women, Life, Freedom” protests in September 2022; and others.

In this heartfelt, beautifully illustrated book, President Bush captures his subjects’ faces and stories in striking detail, bringing depth to our understanding of who they are, the challenges they face, and the lessons they teach us. While their experiences of oppression vary across the world, their courage and determination in the face of repression, prison, or exile demonstrate that, as President Bush says, “No matter where someone lives or how they were raised, every human heart yearns for freedom.”

George W. Bush served as the forty-third president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He previously served as governor of Texas. He and his wife, Laura, live in Dallas, where they founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center at SMU. President Bush is the author of four #1 bestsellers: Decision Points, his presidential memoir; 41, a biography of his father, President George H. W. Bush; and two collections of oil paintings and stories: Portraits of Courage, honoring the sacrifice of America’s military veterans, and Out of Many, One, celebrating America’s immigrants.