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.
Participants who successfully complete all sessions will receive an e-gift certificate from Amazon.com!
Upcoming
G. K. Chesterton and Distributism
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
–
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
The Challenges of Democracy in a Diverse Society
–
One of the most dearly cherished assumptions in American life is the promise of democracy. We believe in multi-racial democracy–and aspire to be one. Other parts of the world, however, have had a very difficult time building a…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - Coriolanus
–
Coriolanus is a famously thorny play. How do you manage a drama about a main character who insists on his right to refuse to engage in the kind of dramatic performance necessary to succeed in Roman politics…and on the Elizabethan…
One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare's Plays - Romeo and Juliet
–
We’ll begin the series with Romeo and Juliet, one of the most frequently read of Shakespeare’s plays. A perennial assignment for high school students, the play has also been filmed in endless iterations, from the 1970s Zefferelli…
Understanding Reconstruction - the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
–
The era of Reconstruction is among the most consequential—but also misunderstood—periods of all American history. Using exclusively primary source documents, this seminar introduces participants to the purpose, implications, and…
Foundations of Modern Environmentalism
–
Environmental activism, despite its omnipresent placement in our news feeds, is really nothing new. Thinkers back to (at least) John Locke and John Stuart Mill have expressed concern for the natural environment.
Join us for three…
Bruno Leoni: Freedom and the Law
–
After WWII, classical liberal thinkers attempted to develop a new version of classical liberalism, more attuned with the needs and issues emerged through the century. Virtually all of them played a special attention to the law.…
Oakeshott's Moral Vision
–
Michael Oakeshott offers his readers a striking description of what it means to be conservative—in politics and in moral life more generally. His vision is connected to a particular view of liberal education. This VRG will…
The Messiness of Progress: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and David Hume's Essays and Histories
–
Hilary Mantel’s modern masterpiece Wolf Hall tells the story of the rise of Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII’s notorious minister and fixer. Usually cast as the villain in Tudor historical fiction, Cromwell instead emerges from…
