Bertrand Russell lived his entire life governed by three obsessions. The first two were love and knowledge, which raised him and transported him higher to the skies envisioned by great poets and saints. The third was politics. He wanted to change the world and was not afraid to fight for what he believed in. As a young man, all that stood between Bertie and complete freedom from care was his father's wealth. But when the old man died, he left his son no money of his own. The Russells were an old Welsh family who had become rich trading with India. However they had also produced one political prisoner during the English Revolution, so it was not hard for the government to confiscate all Bertie's inheritance and put him into debtors' prison. There he spent four years being tortured by heat, cold, hunger and poverty before being released under an amnesty. After this experience, politics became his obsession. He decided that nothing could cure him of disease or poverty than to be able to vote against wrong-doing politicians at elections. So he joined a group of friends who campaigned door-to-door selling newspapers. This work took him throughout England until one day he met some people who told him that there was good money to be made working for the Liberal Party.