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Online Library of Liberty The OLL is a curated collection of scholarly works that engage with vital questions of liberty.

Spanning the centuries from Hammurabi to Hume, and collecting material on topics from art and economics to law and political theory, the OLL provides you with a rich variety of texts to explore and consider.

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Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Ideas About Liberty Hans Eicholz, "Understanding Jefferson: Slavery, Race, and the Declaration of Independence" (July 2021)

Welcome to the July 2021 edition of Liberty Matters. This month we convene a panel of distinguished scholars to ask, "Who was Thomas Jefferson, and how did his views--particularly those on race, slavery, and freedom--inform his writings, including the Declaration of Independence?" Lead essaysist Hans Eicholz, an historian and Senior Fellow at Liberty Fund, kicks things off in our lead essay by ...

Explore the OLL Collection: Quotations About Liberty and Power Adam Smith on the Butcher, the Brewer, and the Baker

The Scottish moral philosopher Adam Smith (1723–1790) was the author of two books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). Among the best-known passages in his works is the following from Book I, Chapter 2 of Wealth of Nations:

Explore the OLL Collection: Images of Liberty and Power The Divine Right of Kings or Regal Tyranny? (Hobbes and Lilburne)

The Divine Right of Kings or Regal Tyranny? Thomas Hobbes (1651) vs. John Lilburne (1647) During the upheavals of the English Civil War when the divine right of the English monarchy was challenged by Parliament, the king executed, and a Commonwealth under Cromwell instituted, there was vigorous debate about the kind of government which should be instituted. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) argued ...

Best of the OLL BOLL 69: John Thelwall, "Political Songs" (1795)

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. A thematic list with links to HTML versions of the texts is available here. This chapter comes from Thelwall’s journal The Tribune where he published his editorials, articles, poems, and songs. We have selected several songs from 1795 which were sung at meetings o...

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