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
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
Classical Tragedy and the World of Ideas
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What can tragic dramas from the ancient world have to teach us today?
Join us to explore classic works by Sophocles and Aeschylus to explore the individual and philosophical implications of the tragic choices they portray.
The Election of 1800: Jefferson v. Adams
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In our current political climate, America can appear more divided than ever before. Politicians and pundits rage at one another, utilizing personal attacks, and each party seems to believe that the other side will destroy the…
Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy
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Shakespeare’s first tetralogy, composed of Richard II, I and 2 Henry IV, and Henry V, is a masterpiece of staged English politics and history. The plays represent the facts of history (more or less) but are deeply interested in…
Liberty and Virtue in the Axial Age
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The concept of the Axial Age was invented by the German philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) to describe the remarkable changes in religious thinking that occurred in most of the world during the first millennium BCE, roughly…
The Evolution of American Federalism
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Our treatment of federalism will focus on what goods are served when governments divide power between national, state, and local levels and the manner in which the United States Constitution itself divides sovereignty. In…
Jane Austen's Persuasion: Aristocracy, Independence, and Economics
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Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last novel, is a significant departure from the fine estates (and fine young eyes) that feature in her earlier works. Its protagonist, Anne Elliott, makes a serious romantic mistake early in life.…
The Bill of Rights: Select Cases in Constitutional Law
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This reading group will begin with a consideration of the proper way for judges/justices to approach their responsibilities through an examination of Federalist 78 and lectures by Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer. In…
Education in a Free Society
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Please join us for a one-day-only Virtual Reading Group to discuss Benjamin Rogge and Pierre Goodrich's essay, Education in a Free Society, with Douglas Den Uyl.
