Welcome to the Online Library of Liberty

The OLL brings books and ideas together so they can converse with each other and with you. We’ve gathered together collections of texts from historical movements and about big ideas that have changed the world to make it easier to allow our texts to “talk” to each other.

Featured Titles

Encyclopedic Liberty: Political Articles in the Dictionary of Diderot and D’Alembert

Denis Diderot (author)

This anthology unites the most significant political writing from the compendium known as The Encyclopedia. It includes eighty-one of the most original, controversial and representative articles on political ideas, practices, and…

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The Present Age

Robert A. Nisbet (author)

Nisbet examines the role of the United States in the world since World War I focusing on the threats that the unprecedented militarization of American life in the decades after 1914, bureaucracy, centralization, and creeping…

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Justice and Its Surroundings

Anthony de Jasay (author)

Author of The State, Anthony de Jasay, has been described as one of the few genuinely original minds in modern political philosophy. He breaks new ground with Justice and Its Surroundings - a new collection of essays that seek to…

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Democracy and Liberty, vol. 2 (1899 ed.)

William Edward Hartpole Lecky (author)

Vol. 2 of a two volume work in which Lecky explores how the growing tendency towards untrammeled democracy might undermine individual liberty in the coming century.

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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!

George Washington’s Rules of Civility

By: Steve Ealy

John Adams, in a letter dated April 22, 1812, confided to Benjamin Rush his belief  that George Washington was “too illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station and reputation.” This was not the first time that the often-aggrieved Adams had lashed out at the man who towered over him both in…
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Liberty Matters

The OLL brings people together to debate and discuss important texts and big ideas about liberty.

The Legacy of David Boaz

By: Andy Craig, Ilya Somin, Tarnell S. Brown, Aaron Powell, and Jonathan Blanks

David Boaz (August 29, 1953–June 7, 2024) was one of the most influential libertarians of the 20th century, and a driving force behind The Cato Institute for many decades.
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Taxation

Under the auspices of tyranny the life of the subject is often sported with, and the fruits of his daily toil are consumed in oppressive taxes, that serve to gratify the ambition, avarice, and lusts of his superiors. Every court…

Alexander Hamilton
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Food & Drink

Chagrined a little that we have been hitherto able to produce nothing in this way of use to mankind; and the hot weather coming on, when the electrical experiments are not so agreeable, it is proposed to put an end to them for this…

Benjamin Franklin
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Socialism & Interventionism

The moving parts are men, that is, beings capable of learning, reflecting, reasoning, of making errors and of correcting them, and consequently of making the mechanism itself better or worse. They are capable of pain and pleasure,…

Frédéric Bastiat
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References and Guides

Hayek and Classical Liberalism: A Bibliographical Essay by John Gray

Related Links:

Economics School of Thought: Austrian School of Economics

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Essays on Hayek

Source: This essay first appeared in the journal Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought , vol. V, no. 4, Winter 1982 published by the Cato Institute…

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1215: Magna Carta

Related Links:

The American Republic: Primary Sources, ed. Bruce Frohnen Magna Carta: A Commentary (1914) Magna Carta: Commemoration Essays (1917) Collections: Law

Related Links in the Goodrich Seminar Room:

Magna Carta

Source: The American Republic: Primary Sources, ed. Bruce Frohnen…

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Milton, John (1608-1674)

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Works by John Milton

Source: Areopagitica, with a Commentary by Sir Richard C. Jebb and with Supplementary Material (Cambridge at the University Press, 1918).

LIFE OF MILTON1

Milton’s life falls into these clearly defined divisions. The first period ends with the poet’s return…

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Tucker, Benjamin (1854-1939)

 

 

Source: Editorial in Literature of Liberty, Autumn 1981, vol. 4, No. 3

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Hume, Smith, and Ferguson: Wealth, Commerce, and Corruption

This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “Wealth, Commerce, and Corruption in Hume, Smith, and Ferguson.”

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Thomas Paine and American Liberty

This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “Thomas Paine and American Liberty.”

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1765: Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress

Related Links:

Collections: The American Revolution and Constitution

Source: The American Republic: Primary Sources, ed. Bruce Frohnen (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2002).

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Timeline: The Life of Pierre F. Goodrich (1896-1973)

Related Links in the Goodrich Seminar Room:

Goodrich Seminar Room The Goodrich Seminar Room Experience

Related Links:

biography of PFG

 

 

The timeline is also available in a larger JPEG image (1550 pixel wide 496 KB) and in PDF format (184 KB).

Key: contemporary historical events…

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Timeline: Life and Work of Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)

 

Related Links:

Ludwig von Mises Key Author: Essays on Mises Collections: The Austrian School of Economics Collections: Liberty Fund's Library of the Works of Mises

The timeline is also available in a larger JPEG image (1,200 pixel wide 442 KB) and in PDF format (41 KB).

Key:…

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Gustave de Molinari

Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912)

This is a collection of key extracts by, and essays and study guides about Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912).

See also the following works:

Liberty Matters Discussion Forum: Roderick Long, “Gustave de Molinari’s Legacy for Liberty” (May, 2013) Bibliographies: Gustave…

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Alexis de Tocqueville

This is a collection of key extracts by, and essays and study guides about Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859).

See the Liberty Matters online discussion of Tocqueville’s New Science of Politics Revisited.

See also the following works:

Works in the OLL by Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

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Forgotten Gems

Over the course of time some particularly noteworthy essays, chapters or sections of books are forgotten. This section is an attempt to revive these “forgotten gems”.

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William Henry Harrison and “The True Principles of Government”
William Henry Harrison (1773-1841)
[An autograph of the first page]

Quentin Taylor discusses the little read Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison who was the 9th President of the United States. He assumed office in March 1841 but only served for a month before dying from…

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The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Jacques Barzun

One of our most distinguished contemporary cultural historians, Jacques Barzun reflects on his long academic career and the movement of ideas he helped to shape through his seminal writings on liberal education in America.

Watch the video version on our YouTube channel.

Below are some prompts for…
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