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
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Past Sessions
Tolstoy's War and Peace
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Soviet writer Isaac Babel said of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, “if the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy.” The novel’s author seems to be especially interested in the contrast between the artificial and the…
Spontaneous (Dis)Order: Enlightenment Thinking on Anarchist Thought
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Spontaneous (Dis)Order: Enlightenment Thinkers on Anarchist Thought, is designed to explore the intellectual lineage from Enlightenment thought to the development of modern anarchism. Anarchism’s emphasis on decentralization,…
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…
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…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare Plays: The Two Noble Kinsmen
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Co-written with John Fletcher, this play comes from “The Knight’s Tale” in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, which took it from a poem by Boccaccio. We will think about literary influence here, of course, but also explore the play’s…
Liberty and the American Statesman: Publius
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with Todd Estes
This VRG will discuss seven of the 85 essays on the US Constitution known as the Federalist Papers or sometimes just The Federalist. They were composed by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison,…
The Ostroms: Polycentricity and Metropolitan Services
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with Roberta Herzberg
In this discussion, we will explore some key readings in Elinor and Vincent Ostrom’s early work which formed the foundation for their theories of metropolitan governance and citizen self-governance. We will…
Douglass North on Trade, Honesty, and Institutions
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with Tawni Ferrarini
Today, the role of institutions in facilitating trade worldwide remains as crucial as it was during the medieval period. In this article, North and Weingast (1990) explore how historical institutions like…
