Virtual Reading Groups
Would you like to join interesting people and have interesting conversations based on readings from the history of liberty?
Free Participation! | Powered by Zoom
Our Virtual Reading Groups will each focus on a particular topic, and a common set of readings will form the basis for our discussions. Each group is facilitated by a professional moderator and is conducted via the Zoom online platform.
Participation is offered at no-cost, and there is no need to be an expert on the topic for discussion! The only requirement is that participants be eager to read and engage in conversation.
Participants who successfully complete all sessions will receive an e-gift certificate from Amazon.com!
Upcoming
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: The Winter's Tale
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Pre-registration is required.
4:00-5:30 pm EST
with Sarah Skwire
Like Much Ado About Nothing and Othello, the plot of The Winter’s Tale turns on false accusations against a faithful woman. Why return so often to the question of fidelity and broken trust? Why…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: The Taming of the Shrew
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Pre-registration is required.
12:00-1:30 pm EST
with Sarah Skwire
The Taming of the Shrew and its story of an overbearing husband taming a shrewish wife may not have aged particularly well, but critics have long debated how seriously it is meant to be taken,…
A Timeless Reading Group: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - Society, Responsibility, and Happiness
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Pre-registration is required.
with Renee Wilmeth
December 2-8, 2024
What defines charity and human kindness in today’s busy world? How does a love of money complicate the issue? For this Timeless reading group discussion, we explore Charles Dickens’ famous…
A Timeless Reading Group: The Constitution and the First Amendment: The Debate on Free Speech
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Pre-registration is required.
with Brandon Paradise
November 21-26, 2024
The First Amendment right to freedom of expression is one of our nation’s most cherished and celebrated ideals, yet it is also one of the most contested. Since the nation’s founding, the…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: As You Like It
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Pre-registration is required.
2:00-3:30 pm EST
with Sarah Skwire
The physical action of As You LIke It, where Rosalind and Celia are exiled from their home into the forest mirrors the psychological action, as characters find their way through confusion and…
Dive Deep into Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society"
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Pre-registration is required.
Join us for a 90-minute virtual discussion about F.A. Hayek’s thoughts on decentralized decision-making versus centralized expert control. It promises to be a lively event. Join us as we explore the Hayekian perspective on the…
Living in a World of “True Believers”. Why Eric Hoffer Still Matters
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Pre-registration is required.
12:00-1:00 pm EST
with Alberto Mingardi
Eric Hoffer is perhaps the most unlikely protagonist of the 20th century political philosophy. Completely self-taught, Hoffer worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco, after being rebuffed…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Titus Andronicus
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Pre-registration is required.
12:00-1:30 pm EDT
with Sarah Skwire
Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus is famously the bloodiest and most violent of Shakespeare’s often bloody and violent tragedies. Its horrors reflect the collapse and decay of the Roman empire and…
The Constitution and the First Amendment: The Debate on Free Speech
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Pre-registration is required.
Thursday, October 31, 2024, 12:00-1:30 pm EDT
with Brandon Paradise
The First Amendment right to freedom of expression is one of our nation’s most cherished and celebrated ideals, yet it is also one of the most contested. Since…
On Cruelty Well-Used: Machiavelli and Realism
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Pre-registration is required.
Wednesdays October 30, November 6, 13, and 20, 2024, 4:00-5:00 pm EDT
with Dan Kapust
Realism has emerged as an important field of inquiry within political theory and philosophy in recent years. While much political and ethical…
A Timeless Reading Group: Dive Deep into Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society"
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Pre-registration is required.
Join our Timeless online reading group to commemorate Friedrich Hayek’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Award and dive into his essay “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” Explore with us the complexities of economic…
Liberty, Law, and the Social Contract in Hobbes to Hume
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Tuesdays October 1, 8, 15, and 22, 2024, 1:00-2:30 pm EDT
with Ted Harpham
The idea of the social contract — the idea that individuals enter into an agreement to cooperate for larger social and political benefits out of a state…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays
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Our new series of Shakespeare Virtual Reading Groups will explore all of Shakespeare’s plays over the course of about 3 years. We’ll look at one play a month, with Liberty Fund’s Sarah Skwire leading one 90 minute discussion for…
Past Sessions
Benjamin Franklin and the Founding
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Tuesdays October 1, 8, and 15, 2024, 2:00-3:00 pm EDT
with Steve Ealy
This VRG will examine three aspects of Franklin’s thought through his writings, both private and public. We will be able to trace the development of his ideas…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Henry V
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1:00-2:30 pm EDT
with Sarah Skwire
Here we see Hal, now King Henry V, on his throne. What lessons has he brought with him from his former wild days? What problems still haunt him? Hal is faced by a series of challenges at home…
Buchanan's Natural and Artifactual Man
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12:00-1:30 pm EDT
with Paul Lewis
In this essay, which was first published by Liberty Fund in 1979, Nobel Laureate James Buchanan examines the significance of what he describes as man’s ‘artifactual’ nature. As understood by…
A Timeless Reading Group: Michael Oakeshott on Education and Community
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with Bradley Birzer
Along with Russell Kirk, C.S. Lewis, Robert Nisbet, Leo Strauss, and Friedrich Hayek, Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990) was one of the most interesting and thoughtful conservatives of the twentieth century.…
Personal Freedoms and the Nature of Man in Graphic Novels
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Tuesdays September 10, 17, and 24, 2024, 1:00-2:00 pm EDT
with Renee Wilmeth
One of the benefits of literature is that we as readers can explore new philosophies and theories through the eyes of characters and their actions. Add…
Michael Oakeshott on the Human Condition
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In this virtual reading group, we will reflect on the achievement of Michael Oakeshott, using Timothy Fuller’s book of essays, Michael Oakeshott on the Human Condition, as our primary text. Fuller and Oakeshott were close…
Reconstruction: What if Lincoln Lived?
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When considering the scope and ultimate shortcomings of Reconstruction, Americans typically resort to asking an inescapable yet unanswerable question: “what if Abraham Lincoln had lived?” Indeed, what if the author of the United…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Henry IV, Part II
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Henry IV, Part two lacks some of the flash and fireworks of the previous play. But it gives us a chance to know Falstaff much better, and to deepen our understanding of this wildly popular character. It also gives Hal’s brothers…