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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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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!

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Liberty Matters

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

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Explore the OLL Collection: Quotations About Liberty and Power John Locke believed that the magistrate should not punish sin but only violations of natural rights and public peace (1689)

John Locke (1632-1704), in his Letter on Toleration, argued that sins should not be punished by the magistrate. Only acts which are "prejudicial to other men’s rights" should be legally punished:

Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Ideas About Liberty Liberty and Civic Education

What is civic education, and why does it matter? Further, what constitutes civic education, and whose task should it be to ensure a nation's citizens are civically literate? These are the questions this edition of Liberty Matters hopes to explore, beginning with our lead essayist, David Davenport. Davenport will be joined by Mark Schug, Rachel Davison Humphries, and Lee Trepanier to discuss the...

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 ...