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
Living in a World of “True Believers”. Why Eric Hoffer Still Matters
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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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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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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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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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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…
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…
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 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…
