Virtual Reading Groups
Would you like to join interesting people and have interesting conversations based on readings from the history of liberty?
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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'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…
Liberty and Responsibility in the African American Religious Tradition
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This Virtual Reading Group traces the pursuit of liberty in African American religious thought from slavery, through emancipation and Reconstruction, to the mid century civil rights movement. This VRG aims to give an overview of…
If you don’t Martineau, you ought to Martineau: Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy on Human Liberty, Wealth, and 18th century Markets and Trade
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Pre-registration is required.
Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy is a 9-volume series that uses short, easily understandable stories to explain economic concepts concerning equality, wealth, labor, trade, and more. Martineau’s works,…
A Timeless Reading Group: Plato's Apology
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Pre-registration is required.
One of the most famous figures in Western philosophy, Socrates captures our attention for many reasons, not least because of his trial and death. What do we know about Socrates and how do we know it? In this group, we’ll read…
G. K. Chesterton and Distributism
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Pre-registration is required.
“Our society is so abnormal that the normal man never dreams of having the normal occupation of looking after his own property. When he chooses a trade, he chooses one of the ten thousand trades that involve looking after other…
A Timeless Reading Group: Harriet Martineau's Illustrations of Political Economy: The Economic Storytelling of Harriet Martineau
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Pre-registration is required.
Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy is a 9-volume series that uses short, easily understandable stories to explain economic concepts concerning equality, wealth, labor, trade, and more. Martineau’s works,…
Ancient Roman Heroes of the Founders
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Pre-registration is required.
This Virtual Reading Group examines the importance of fame for the American Founders and explores how Cincinnatus, Cato, and Cicero served as role models for them. Readings primarily come from ancient Roman sources and the…
Folly and Freedom: The Mississippi Bubble of 1720 in Art and Letters
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Pre-registration is required.
Debt crises and stock market bubbles and crashes are not a 20th century phenomenon. In the 18th century, Scotsman John Law helped France overhaul her financial system. Then the burgeoning French stock market crashed in 1720,…
Liberty in Tolstoy's Master and Man
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Pre-registration is required.
Love, selflessness, sacrifice and the reevaluation of what truly matters in life. Welcome to our discussion of Leo Tolstoy’s timeless short story, Master and Man.
The cold month of February is an ideal time to discuss this…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Othello
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Pre-registration is required.
Shakespeare’s Othello has always been an interesting play, but its considerations of race, rank, and romance may have become more interesting as our cultural contexts have changed around it. How do we read Othello’s…
Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris: Quasimodo and Lessons of the Enlightenment
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Pre-registration is required.
Published in 1831, Notre-Dame de Paris (or, as we know it, The Hunchback of Notre Dame) was a social criticism about progress, education, science, the class system, and the state of the city of Paris. Considered one of the…
A Timeless Reading Group: Dive Deep into Elinor Ostrom’s Tragedy of the Commons
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Pre-registration is required.
Join us for the March 9-16, 2025 Timeless Reading Group where we’ll take a deep dive into Elinor Ostrom’s work on common pool resource problems, exploring how communities can manage shared resources effectively. Ostrom took on…
Liberty and the American Statesman: Remember the Ladies!
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Pre-registration is required.
On March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams wrote to husband John, encouraging him to “Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands.” She…
Past Sessions
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…
Insights on Joy: “Anna Karenina”
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Often considered one of the greatest works in world literature, Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” presents a deep exploration of the true sources of joy in human life. On the novel’s terms, efforts to find joy through the pursuit of…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Henry IV, Part I
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Shakespeare’s three plays featuring Prince Hal’s development into the famed king, Henry V, are some of his most popular in the modern era. We’ll look into Hal’s intellectual and moral growth, and try to decide how to feel about…
