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

The Holy Qur-an (Koran) (Arabic and English)

Muhammad (author)

Tradition holds that during the last decades of Muhammad’s life he received revelations from the angel Gabriel. Muhammad was instructed to repeat these revelations to his community as warnings or instructions from God. During his…

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The American Commonwealth, 2 vols.

Viscount James Bryce (author)

In Democracy in America (1835) the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville interpreted American society through the lens of democratic political theory. A half-century later the Scotsman James Bryce examined “the institutions and the people…

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Liberty of the Press (1825)

James Mill (author)

One of the articles James Mill wrote for the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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The Texts of Taoism, Part I

Lao Tzu (author)

Part of a collection of volumes dealing with the works of Taoism. This volume contains Tao Teh King (or Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu) and the Writings of Kwang Ze (or Zhuangzi).

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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!

Cato and George Washington

By: Walter Donway

I suspect many admirers of the American Revolution fail to appreciate the influence that the history of ancient Rome, its philosophers and statesmen, and its fate exerted on our founders—almost all Age of Enlightenment thinkers in good standing. It was the nature of 18th-century education in the…
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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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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
Full Quote

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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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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