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 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

Spontaneous Orders in Antiquity

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Spontaneous order is a central feature of classical liberal thought, especially Friedrich Hayek, and is often taken to be a key dimension of both liberal societies and market-based economies. Yet classical political thought…

One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Antony and Cleopatra

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Pre-registration is required.

Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra is a famously difficult play to stage. Its complicated plot and constant shifting of scenes make the action hard to follow. But the beauties of Shakespeare’s language are still there, and we…

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Buchanan's Essays: What Should Economists Do?

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Pre-registration is required.

James Buchanan’s goal in his 1964 essay ’What Should Economists Do?’ was to persuade economists to “concentrate their attention on a particular form of human activity, and upon the various institutional arrangements that arise as…

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Liberty and the American Statesman: Roger Sherman

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Pre-registration is required.

This virtual reading group explores the life, ideas, and legacy of Roger Sherman, one of the most influential—yet often overlooked—Founding Fathers of the United States. A key figure in the American founding, Sherman was the…

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Wealth of Nations: A Six-Part Series - Book Three

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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…

Register

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

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Pre-registration is required.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 were a defining moment in American political history, bringing the issue of slavery’s expansion to the forefront of national debate. As Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas clashed over moral…

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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: All's Well That Ends Well

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Pre-registration is required.

All’s Well that Ends Well has defied categorization for centuries. The winning of a reluctant husband by an over-eager bride, and the subsequent bed-trick that secures their continued marriage are morally complicated in ways that…

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Wealth of Nations: A Six-Part Series - Book Four

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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…

Register

Franz Kafka's Short Stories

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Pre-registration is required.

Except for “The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka’s short stories are often overshadowed by his two major novels, The Trial and The Castle, which tend to dominate discussions of his work. Yet this emphasis can obscure the remarkable…

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Religion and the Founding Fathers

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Pre-registration is required.

This three-session VRG examines the complex and evolving relationship between religion and politics in the American founding era, tracing how theological ideas shaped debates over authority, liberty, and governance. The selected…

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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: The Tempest

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Pre-registration is required.

Thought to be one of Shakespeare’s latest plays, The Tempest is haunted by magic and by images of humans at their best and their worst. Many critics read Prospero’s farewell to his books at the play’s end as conveying, in some…

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Wealth of Nations: A Six-Part Series - Book Five Part One

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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…

Register

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…

Register

Past Sessions

One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - Henry VI, Part III

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The comedy troupe “The Reduced Shakespeare Company” famously portrays Shakespeare’s English history plays as a football game, with the crown being tossed back and forth. Nowhere is this more apt than in Henry VI, Part Three,…

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H. L. Mencken on Commerce, Culture, and Democracy

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“We live in a land of abounding quackeries, and if we do not learn how to laugh we succumb to the melancholy disease which afflicts the race of viewers-with-alarm.” H.L. Mencken, arguably the greatest prose stylist of the 20th…

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Islam and Liberty

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We appreciate your interest in this virtual reading group. Unfortunately, this VRG is full and we are no longer accepting registrations. We invite you to check out our upcoming events here. We hope to see you at a future VRG!

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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - Henry VI, Part II

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With the weak Henry VI still on the throne, England struggles to hold together. Jack Cade’s rebellion threatens stability from below and machinations among the nobles threaten from above, and the play closes with the opening of…

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The Price of Power: Bring Up the Bodies and The Prince

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In the sequel to Wolf Hall, Henry VIII’s infamous counselor Thomas Cromwell finds himself more powerful than ever before—and more in danger. By the end of the book, he will have executed a queen and become Baron Cromwell, an…

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Civil Society and Political Economy

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Debates surrounding public policy often bifurcate the world into private markets and government. When social and/or economic problems arise, pundits are quick to propose government solutions to so-called failures of private…

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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - Henry VI, Part I

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The early death of the celebrated king Henry V has left the throne of England in the hands of his son, an infant of only 9 months. Shakespeare calls him:

Henry the Sixth in infant bands crowned King

Whose state so many had the…

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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - A Midsummer Night's Dream

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a perfect play to use for a VRG at the beginning of summer. The woods where the events of the play take place are filled with endlessly fickle pairs of human lovers, a set of amateur actors trying to…

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