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
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…
Taking the Tragedy out of the Commons: A Deep Dive into Elinor Ostrom
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
Buchanan on Public Choice
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Henry VIII
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
Dante's Inferno and Human Liberty
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
A Timeless Reading Group: Shakespeare's Henry V
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
Liberty and the American Statesman: George Washington
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
Individual and Collective Responsibility in James Buchanan’s The Limits of Liberty
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
A Timeless Reading Group: Labor, Social Justice, and Political Reform in Harriet Martineau
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Richard III
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Pre-registration is required.
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?…
The Power of "I": Exploring Ayn Rand's Anthem
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
A Timeless Reading Group: A Conservative Revolution? Friedrich von Gentz on the American Revolution
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Pre-registration is required.
The Austrian Statesman Friedrich von Gentz (1764-1832) was one of the first Europeans to publish a comparison of the American and French Revolutions. In it, Gentz argued that the American Revolution was superior to the French…
A Timeless Reading Group: Artificial Intelligence: Doom or Bloom?
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Pre-registration is required.
How will humans succeed (or survive) in the Age of AI?
Russ Roberts brought the world’s leading thinkers about artificial intelligence to the EconTalk audience and was early to the trend. He hosted Nick Bostrom on…
Lincoln’s Protégé: Ulysses S. Grant and the New Birth of Freedom
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Pre-registration is required.
Next to Abraham Lincoln, no citizen at the end of the Civil War stood in higher regard among the loyal American public than Ulysses S. Grant. Lincoln’s sudden death in April 1865 opened an enormous cavity that beckoned someone—…
A Timeless Reading Group: Artificial Intelligence: Doom or Bloom?
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Pre-registration is required.
How will humans succeed (or survive) in the Age of AI?
Russ Roberts brought the world’s leading thinkers about artificial intelligence to the EconTalk audience and was early to the trend. He hosted Nick Bostrom on…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: Much Ado About Nothing
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Pre-registration is required.
Charles I famously crossed the title Much Ado About Nothing off his copy of the play and replaced it with “Beatrice and Benedick.” But entertaining and moving as these two bantering lovers are, it is the dangerous, near-tragic…
Artificial Intelligence: Doom or Bloom?
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Pre-registration is required.
How will humans succeed (or survive) in the Age of AI?
Russ Roberts brought the world’s leading thinkers about artificial intelligence to the EconTalk audience and was early to the trend. He hosted Nick Bostrom on…
Past Sessions
A Timeless Reading Group: Harriet Martineau's Illustrations of Political Economy: The Economic Storytelling of Harriet Martineau
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with Amy Willis
Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy is a 9-volume series that uses short, easily understandable stories to explain economic concepts concerning equality, wealth, labor, trade, and more.…
G. K. Chesterton and Distributism
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with Jim Hartley
“Our society is so abnormal that the normal man never dreams of having the normal occupation of looking after his own property. When he chooses a trade, he chooses one of the ten thousand trades that involve…
A Timeless Reading Group: Plato's Apology
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with Jennifer Thompson
One of the most famous figures in Western philosophy, Socrates captures our attention for many reasons, not least because of his trial and death. What do we know about Socrates and how do we know it? In…
If you don’t Martineau, you ought to Martineau: Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy on Human Liberty, Wealth, and 18th century Markets and Trade
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Harriet Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy is a 9-volume series that uses short, easily understandable stories to explain economic concepts concerning equality, wealth, labor, trade, and more. Martineau’s works,…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: The Winter's Tale
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4:00-5:30 pm EST
with Sarah Skwire
Like Much Ado About Nothing and Othello, the plot of The Winter’s Tale turns on false accusations against a faithful woman. Why return so often to the question of fidelity and broken trust? Why…
The Presidents: Jefferson and Understanding the Declaration of Independence
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Thomas Jefferson wrote that in drafting the Declaration of Independence he meant to give expression to “the American mind.” What does this mean? What does the Declaration tell us about the American mind as it relates to the…
Liberty and Responsibility in the African American Religious Tradition
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with Melissa Matthes
This Virtual Reading Group traces the pursuit of liberty in African American religious thought from slavery, through emancipation and Reconstruction, to the mid century civil rights movement. This VRG aims to…
Buchanan's Essays: Positive Economics, Welfare Economics and Political Economy
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This 1959 essay sees James Buchanan criticise both older, utilitarian approaches to welfare economics and also what were then the newer Paretian and Samuelsonian approaches. In particular, Buchanan challenges what he sees as the…
