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 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.
Participants who successfully complete all sessions will receive an e-gift certificate from Amazon.com!
Upcoming
G. K. Chesterton and Distributism
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Pre-registration is required.
“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 looking after other…
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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Pre-registration is required.
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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Pre-registration is required.
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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Pre-registration is required.
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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Pre-registration is required.
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 give an overview of…
Buchanan's Essays: Positive Economics, Welfare Economics and Political Economy
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Pre-registration is required.
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…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: The Taming of the Shrew
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Pre-registration is required.
12:00-1:30 pm EST
with Sarah Skwire
The Taming of the Shrew and its story of an overbearing husband taming a shrewish wife may not have aged particularly well, but critics have long debated how seriously it is meant to be taken,…
A Timeless Reading Group: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - Society, Responsibility, and Happiness
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Pre-registration is required.
with Renee Wilmeth
December 2-8, 2024
What defines charity and human kindness in today’s busy world? How does a love of money complicate the issue? For this Timeless reading group discussion, we explore Charles Dickens’ famous…
A Timeless Reading Group: The Constitution and the First Amendment: The Debate on Free Speech
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with Brandon Paradise
November 21-26, 2024
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 the nation’s founding, the…
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'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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
