The Reading Room

The OLL blog explores the fascinating, vital, and often surprising texts and people that fill our library. Come talk in our library!

Careless People in the Great American Novel

By: Harrison Layman

The Great Gatsby ends on a sad note. The book's namesake, Gatsby, lies dead in a pool. He experiences a second death when his funeral is sparsely attended. The house that was so full when he was alive lies empty in his death. George Wilson and his wife Myrtle also lie dead, the latter after being run over by Daisy, and the former after taking his own life following his murder of Gatsby. 
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Rousseau Dissents from the Modern World

By: Walter Donway

“I ask: which of the two, civil or natural life, is more likely to become insufferable to those who live it? We see about us practically no people who do not complain about their existence...[but] has anyone ever heard of a savage…
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To Exonerate God, Rousseau Must Make Man Depraved

By: Walter Donway

Professor Alan Kors explains that the young Rousseau did not trust the Paris philosophes. He met with them in the cafes but did not like their deism. He had known and argued with atheists. The philosophes seemed to him to seize upon…
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OLL’s November Birthday: Voltaire (November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

November’s OLL Birthday Essay is in honor of François Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire. A playwright, poet, historian, philosopher, and satirist, Voltaire literally defined the Age of Enlightenment, sometimes…
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Utilitarianism: Pleasure or Preference?

By: Bill Glod

Spend much time in discussion of ethics and you’ll likely hear standard objections to various utilitarian theories. In their single-minded drive to maximize some version of the good (e.g., desirable conscious states like pleasure),…
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A Critique of Preferentism

By: Bill Glod

A previous essay suggested ways in which preference-satisfaction utilitarianism (“preferentism”) is superior to forms of utilitarianism that focus on promoting or maximizing desirable states of consciousness (such as pleasure).…
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OLL’s October Birthday: Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

October’s OLL Birthday Essay is in honor of the French polymath Denis Diderot. Most famous as the editor and inspiration of the Encyclopédie, Diderot also published works on philosophy and art, as well as novels, and plays, and was…
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Ilia Chavchavadze on Adam Smith, Free Trade, and the Future of the United States

By: Irakli Javakhishvili

In a previous article, we have already talked about the views of the founder of Georgian liberal thought, Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, on private property. It should be noted that his reviews were not limited to only internal issues;…
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Anne Dowriche: War, Treason and Shakespeare.

By: Joanne Paul

Thirty years into the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, a small book appeared in the London market. The frontispiece identified it as ‘The French Historie’ and noted that it was ‘published by A. D.’. Only when the reader perused the…
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The Three Theological Virtues Revealed: The Wife of Bath’s Tale

By: Nathaniel Birzer

The Wife of Bath’s Tale is likely the single-most selected work from Chaucer’s corpus to be used in the classroom. Yet this tendency to single it out also works to obscure the Tale’s role in the larger story, the connections which…
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Future of Liberty Podcast Notes: Katherine Mangu-Ward on politics

By: Amy Willis

In the second episode of Liberty Fund’s new Future of Liberty podcast, hosted by Mitch Daniels, Daniels welcomes Reason magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward to discuss the ever changing role of journalism in a free…
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Introducing The Pamphlet Debate on the American Question in Great Britain, 1764-1776

By: Christy Lynn Horpedahl

Reading Room readers, meet your revolutionary new friend: The Pamphlet Debate on the American Question in Great Britain, 1764-1776 Collection.
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A Goodbye to a Good Man

By: Michael Zigismund

The movement for human freedom just lost one of its great champions. The Cato Institute’s “North Star,” David Boaz, passed away on June 7, 2024, at the age of 70. I commend you to read the many heartfelt remembrances already…
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The Reading Room Archives

Reading Room Contributors

Harrison Layman

Harrison Layman

Walter Donway

Walter Donway

Peter Carl Mentzel

Peter Carl Mentzel

Bill Glod

Bill Glod