Art

About this Collection

Political, economic, and philosophical ideas are often expressed through works of art. The art collected in the OLL gives us another history of liberty to read–a history written with etchings, paints, pastels, and even carved in stone.

Ancient Asia United States Western Europe Freedom Ancient Greece & Rome Drawing. Design. Illustration Sculpture Painting Fine Arts

Key People

Hans Holbein

Hans Holbein

Titles & Essays

Group by Category
Blake’s Illustrations of the Book of Job

William Blake (author)

The book contains a lengthy introduction to the life and work of Blake by Norton as well as full page black and white copies of the etchings which Blake made between 1823 and 1826 for his illustrated edition of the Book of Job.

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Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, 3 vols.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

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Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 1

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

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Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 2

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

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Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, vol. 3

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of Characteristicks presents the complete 1732 text of this classic work of philosophy and political theory. Also included are faithful reproductions of the stirring engravings that Shaftesbury created to…

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THE READING ROOM

“Call me Schnitzel”: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Anti-Satan

By: Daniel Ross Goodman

One of the surprise cultural hits of this past summer was the three-part Netflix docu-series Arnold, which has scored a 96% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes and which has been lauded by critics and audiences alike.
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Extract from The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia (Illustrations and Topical index)

Thomas Jefferson (author)

This file contains the following extracts from the Jeffersonian Cyclopedia: the editor’s Preface, the illustrations of Jefferson, a chronology of his life and work, the appendix of key documents, and the Topical Index.

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THE READING ROOM

Freedom and Work in Severance

By: Joy Buchanan

Are employees free when they are at work? The new science-fiction TV show Severanceexplores themes about workplace culture and political oppression. Severance can also be very funny, in the tradition of Dilbert and Office Space.
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In Praise of Folly

Desiderius Erasmus (author)

The personification of Folly comes to earth to expose the follies, foibles, and failings of humans. Illustrated with 77 woodcuts by Hans Holbein.

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THE READING ROOM

Loci Amoeni: Pleasant Places and the Golden Ages in Ancient Poetry: Part One

By: Alexander Schmid

A common motif throughout ancient poetry from the near-East to the West is that of the tranquil and sacred garden. In particular, gardens play a preeminent role in describing paradise for near-Eastern and Western cultures. In fact,…
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THE READING ROOM

Me and My Shadow: Liberty, “Breaking Bad”, and Shadow Possession

By: Lawrence Meyers

What is the nexus between liberty and Breaking Bad, named by Rolling Stone as the third-best television show of all-time? The archetypal tale of Walter White’s “transformation from Mr. Chips to Scarface” teaches that there is no…
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THE READING ROOM

Miltonheimer

By: Daniel Ross Goodman

For the past few weeks the conversation about movies in America—and around much of the rest of the world, for that matter—has been dominated by two films that have turned out to be two of the biggest hits in years: Christopher Nolan…
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THE READING ROOM

Miltonheimer Two, The Sequel

By: Daniel Ross Goodman

In Paradise Lost, Raphael makes an account to Adam about the war between the good angels and the rebel angels that took place in Heaven prior to his and Eve’s creation. The archangel tells Adam that Satan, frustrated by his…
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THE READING ROOM

On Dante’s Paradiso: Venus, Predestination, and Art

By: Alexander Schmid

In the eighth canto of Dante’s Paradiso, now in the third sphere of Venus, one witnesses a discussion of how Nature, or the embodied Spirit or Will of God, does not actually distinguish between the individuality of people. It sees…
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THE READING ROOM

Paradise Now! Milton, Seinfeld, and the Single Life

By: Daniel Ross Goodman

We often associate “I’ll never forget where I was when…” memories with tragic events, like the JFK assassination or 9/11. But sometimes we have these memories about happy occasions and other personally and culturally significant…
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THE READING ROOM

Realism and Liturgy: Robert Eggers’s The Northman

By: Nathaniel Birzer

Robert Eggers’s newest film, The Northman, is a phenomenal movie…provided you know what you are in for. The film’s advertising, apparently, did not, selling it as another gritty and gray ‘realistic’ medieval movie. The film’s…
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THE READING ROOM

Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel and Kurosawa’s Rashomon

By: Nathaniel Birzer

Many popular articles have noted the similarities in structure between Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel and the classic Kurosawa film Rashomon, and a few articles have addressed the historical truths which informed the movie and the…
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THE READING ROOM

The Return of Oral Story-telling: a review of Critical Role’s The Legend of Vox Machina

By: Nathaniel Birzer

From Homer to the medieval romances, the tradition of telling tales aloud to an audience around a fire, either read from a book or performed from memory by a bard, has long been a part of the Western literary tradition, as has the…
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THE READING ROOM

Who Will Watch the Watchmen?

By: Henry T. Edmondson III

Will democracy survive? Recent years have not always brought encouragement. In Lincoln’s memorable phrase the possibility of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” was not a guarantee but a “proposition” yet to be…
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