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 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.
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Participants who successfully complete all sessions will receive an e-gift certificate from Amazon.com!
Upcoming
Benjamin Franklin and the Founding
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Pre-registration is required.
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 by reading the material for each session in chronological order. The…
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Liberty, Law, and the Social Contract in Hobbes to Hume
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Pre-registration is required.
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 of nature — lies at the heart of modern political thought as it developed in…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Henry V
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Pre-registration is required.
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 and abroad. Is he prepared to deal…
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Buchanan's Natural and Artifactual Man
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Pre-registration is required.
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 Buchanan, the term ‘artifactual’…
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Personal Freedoms, Righting Wrongs, and the Nature of Man
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Pre-registration is required.
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 the benefit of striking illustrations and the ideas of political vengeance,…
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Reconstruction: What if Lincoln Lived?
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Henry IV, Part II
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
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Insights on Joy: “Anna Karenina”
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
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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…
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Past Sessions
Sympathy and Justice in Jane Austen and Adam Smith
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Read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Catherine, or The Bower, and Sandition with bright eyes alongside Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments to explore themes of sympathy, duty, propriety, and the rules of justice. How…
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Two Moralities? Jane Jacobs’ Systems of Survival
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Pre-registration is required, and we ask you to register only if you can be present for ALL sessions. Readings must be acquired in advance. Participants who successfully complete ALL sessions will be eligible to receive an Amazon…
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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - Julius Caesar
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“Beware the Ides of March!” Or simply prepare yourself for them with this exploration of one of Shakespeare’s most frequently read and quoted plays. Questions of politics are front and center in this play, with one of the primary…
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Frank H. Knight’s Freedom and Reform: Essays in Economics and Social Philosophy
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Pre-registration is required, and we ask you to register only if you can be present for ALL sessions. Readings must be acquired in advance. You may use promo code VRG2023 to receive 35% off your purchase at Liberty Fund Books.…
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T.S. Eliot on Education and Culture
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“Surely the great poet is, among other things, one who not merely restores a tradition which has been in abeyance, but one who in his poetry re-twines as many straying strands of tradition as possible.” T. S. Eliot’s work, both…
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One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - The Merchant of Venice
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One of the most problematic of Shakespeare’s so-called “problem plays,” The Merchant of Venice provides us with the opportunity to talk about early modern attitudes towards markets, merchants, and towards the Jews who were so…
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Timeless: Reading Together - Utopia or Dystopia?
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Please join us in February/March 2024 for a Timeless Virtual Reading Group with Janet Bufton.
Timeless is our new series of asynchronous reading groups.
Each group will be “open” for a defined time period, with scheduled assigned…
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Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War: the Emancipation Proclamation
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Many of Lincoln’s speeches and letters articulate the concept of American freedom, and Lincoln’s vision continues to penetrate our culture today. Although it lacks the soaring rhetoric, the legalistic writing of the Emancipation…
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