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
Buchanan on Public Choice
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with Lynne Kiesling
In this reading group we will read two of James Buchanan’s classic essays about public choice: “Politics Without Romance” and “Before Public Choice.” These essays define Buchanan’s concept of public choice and…
Taking the Tragedy out of the Commons: A Deep Dive into Elinor Ostrom
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with Tawni Ferrarini
Join us for a 90-minute virtual discussion about Elinor Ostrom’s work on common pool resource problems, exploring how communities can manage shared resources effectively. Ostrom took on the conventional…
Liberty and the American Statesman: Remember the Ladies!
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with Sarah Skwire
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…
Law, Morality, and Criminal Justice in a Liberal Democracy
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with Jonathan Jacobs
This Virtual Reading Group will explore some of the fundamental issues concerning the relation between law and morality in a liberal democracy, with a focus on matters concerning criminal justice. Among the…
A Timeless Reading Group: Dive Deep into Elinor Ostrom’s Tragedy of the Commons
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with Tawni Ferrarini
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…
Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris: Quasimodo and Lessons of the Enlightenment
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with Renee Wilmeth
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.…
A Timeless Reading Group: Harriet Martineau's Illustrations of Political Economy: Labour and Liberty in Harriet Martineau
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with Janet Bufton
This is the second in our series of Timeless reading groups about Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy. We will read two novellas about the contrast between wage labour and slavery, and the…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Othello
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with Sarah Skwire
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…
