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Online Library of Liberty The OLL is a curated collection of scholarly works that engage with vital questions of liberty.

Spanning the centuries from Hammurabi to Hume, and collecting material on topics from art and economics to law and political theory, the OLL provides you with a rich variety of texts to explore and consider.

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The Reading Room

The OLL blog explores the fascinating, vital, and often surprising texts and people that fill our library. Come talk in our library!

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Liberty Matters

The OLL brings people together to debate and discuss important texts and big ideas about liberty.

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Liberty Matters: A Forum for the Discussion of Ideas About Liberty Why Read the Ancients Today? (November/December 2022)

Why have ancient texts fallen out of favor today? Once read widely- both in homes and schools- texts by "dead white men" are looked upon today with disfavor. Yet some scholars- and readers- insist upon their enduring significance, even when they reflect a time and place foreign to what we know today. For this Liberty Matters, we invited a diverse group of scholars to ponder the question, Wh...

Explore the OLL Collection: Quotations About Liberty and Power John Locke on the idea that “wherever law ends, tyranny begins” (1689)

John Locke states in Section 202 of Chap. XVIII “Of Tyranny” in Book II of the Two Treatises of Government that even magistrates must abide by the law:

Explore the OLL Collection: Images of Liberty and Power Samuel warns the Israelites of the Dangers of Kings

"Saul is ordered to destroy all the Amalekites and their livestock," [page 24 verso, lower panel] The Morgan Picture Bible (c. 1250) Many Christians in 17th century England and 17th and 18th cen...