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 online powered by Zoom.
Our Timeless Reading Groups are asynchronous and open to all in the Portal platform. Liberty Fund solicits a scholar to lead a discussion of a short story and/or essays that each participant will read and discuss. This format doesn’t require participants to use Zoom or “schedule” a specific time to participate.
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.
Upcoming
George Eliot's Middlemarch
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Pre-registration is required.
George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1872) is widely regarded as one of the greatest English novels, shaped by her remarkable life and intellectual background. The novel explores the tension between individual freedom, social…
Liberty and the American Statesman: Thomas Jefferson vs. John Adams
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Pre-registration is required.
This session explores the evolving relationship and ideological divide between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who went from collaborators on the Declaration of Independence to political rivals with sharply different views on…
Wealth of Nations: A Six-Part Series - Book Five Part Two
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Pre-registration is required.
Join us for a six-part monthly virtual reading group series that celebrates the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations!
Each month, Sarah Skwire and Janet Bufton (creators…
Liberty and the American Statesman: Daniel Webster vs. John Calhoun...the Slavery Debate
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Pre-registration is required.
In this Liberty and the American Statesman VRG, we will examine the contrasting responses to the sectional crisis presented in John C. Calhoun’s “Speech on the Slavery Question” (March 4, 1850) and Daniel Webster’s “The…
Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: A Twelve-Part Series - Part One
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Pre-registration is required.
Join us for a twelve-part monthly virtual reading group series that celebrates the 250th anniversary of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire!
Each month, Peter Mentzel will lead a 90-minute…
Brave New World and We: Dystopian Visions and the Nature of Tyranny
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Pre-registration is required.
Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, first published in English in 1924, is often considered the grandfather of dystopian science fiction and influenced classics such as Orwell’s 1984, Vonnegut’s Player Piano, and Rand’s Anthem. In this…
The Rise and Fall of a Self-Made Man: Freedom and Falsehood in The Great Gatsby
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Pre-registration is required.
The Great Gatsby is one of America’s most-read novels, in large part because of its use in countless high school and college English classes. It offers the story of Jay Gatsby as told by Nick Carraway, his new neighbor. It…
Niall Ferguson's The Square and the Tower
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Pre-registration is required.
Join Aeon Skoble for a three-session VRG exploring Niall Ferguson’s The Square and the Tower, an ambitious examination of the dynamic relationship between hierarchies and networks throughout history. As participants work through…
Liberty and the American Statesman: Before The Federalist: Alexander Hamilton as Revolutionary
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Pre-registration is required.
How did Hamilton become Hamilton? His earliest writing in favor of the American colonial cause evinced all the marks of a limited government Whig seeking redress for imperial overreach and violation of rights. By the end of the…
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: A Twelve-Part Series: Part Two
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Pre-registration is required.
Join us for a twelve-part monthly virtual reading group series that celebrates the 250th anniversary of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire!
Each month, Peter Mentzel will lead a 90-minute…
Past Sessions
The Power of "I": Exploring Ayn Rand's Anthem
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Does this bring back a high school reading assignment memory? Why not find a used copy, one that has surely been read by many, and sneak a couple-hour break from the world… and into a dystopian future?
Originally published in the…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Richard III
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Celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday with one of his great villains! Shakespeare’s Richard III is a compelling portrait of the lengths to which ambition can drive a man. But is the play–despite its popularity–merely Tudor propaganda?…
A Timeless Reading Group: Labor, Social Justice, and Political Reform in Harriet Martineau
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with Nicholas Snow
This is the third in our series of Timeless reading groups about Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy. This time, we will read and discuss the next two novellas in the series, from volumes 3…
Individual and Collective Responsibility in James Buchanan’s The Limits of Liberty
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At the heart of Buchanan’s work is a deep inquiry into fundamental questions of liberty and order in society. In this respect, Buchanan is a 20th century successor to 18th century Enlightenment thinkers. Yet he is a more modern…
Liberty and the American Statesman: George Washington
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This VRG is designed to introduce one of America’s most renowned yet least understood Founders, George Washington. We begin with “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior,” which began as an exercise in penmanship when Washington…
A Timeless Reading Group: Shakespeare's Henry V
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with Garth Bond
While Shakespeare wrote many plays about tyrannical and ineffective monarchs, Henry V is a rare play focused on a successful, effective, and popular ruler—a fact which may account for its long-standing success in…
Dante's Inferno and Human Liberty
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with Shannon Chamberlain
This reading group will explore the connection between structure and liberty, will and wisdom: concerns central to Dante throughout his life, much of which was spent in exile for his political and…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Henry VIII
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with Sarah Skwire
With “The Mirror and the Light” available for US viewers, it’s a good time to think about Shakespeare’s portrayal of Henry VIII and our continuing cultural obsession with his life and reign. How does Shakespeare…
