Features & Essays

Liberty Matters

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

Jefferson in Time: Perspectives through His Eyes

By: Cara Rogers Stevens, Todd Estes, Christine McDonald, and Hans Eicholz March 20, 2025

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 and died on July 4th, 1826. During his 83 years Jefferson saw and brought about dramatic changes in law, slavery, and religious toleration. His efforts were imperfect but he did, throughout his life, attempt to live up to his ideals.

Early Spanish Empire in North America

By: Paul Schwennesen, Gabriela Calderon de Burgos, and Henry T. Edmondson III February 18, 2025

Did a Spanish Enlightenment predate and influence later English and Scottish Enlightenments?

Ancient Legacies: Democracy v Republic (Greece v Rome)

By: Ioannis D. Evrigenis, Marco Romani, Carl Richard, and Charlotte C. Thomas January 14, 2025

American revolutionaries looked to the past for lessons about constraining the individuals who would serve in future governments.

Contrasting Views of Liberty in Hume and Rousseau (November 2024)

By: Maria Pia Paganelli, Aaron Alexander Zubia, Edward Harpham, and Elena Yi-Jia Zeng November 12, 2024

David Hume’s skepticism and rigorous empiricism confront Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s idealism and passionate romanticism in this series about their perspectives on liberty. Hume and Rousseau were two of the most notorious and…

Oakeshott and Liberal Education (October 2024)

By: Elizabeth Corey, Ella C. Street, Eric S. Kos, and Elaine Sternberg October 8, 2024

Michael Oakeshott was an English political theorist and philosopher who is admired by many conservatives and classical liberals. In this Liberty Matters series, Elizabeth Corey relates Oakeshott's ideal categories of civil and…

Classical Liberals on Race (August/September 2024)

By: Rachel Ferguson, Marcus M. Witcher, Angel Adams Parham, Timothy Sandefur, Lucas E. Morel, and Sanford Ikeda August 20, 2024

Many classical liberals have been silent or passive when it comes to racism’s pernicious effects. Others have twisted or misunderstood classical liberalism to justify racist words and deeds.

The Rebirth of the Austrian School and the South Royalton Conference: Marking the Fifty-Year Anniversary (June 2024)

By: Richard Ebeling, Mario J. Rizzo, David R. Henderson, and Geoffrey Lea June 4, 2024

The first Austrian Economics conference was held fifty years ago in 1974 in South Royalton, Vermont. In this Liberty Matters online discussion the authors share their recollections, thoughts on the fifty years since, and their hopes…

Harriet Taylor Mill on Marriage and Divorce (March/April 2024)

By: Giandomenica Becchio, Helen McCabe, Sandra J. Peart, and David M. Levy March 28, 2024

In this Liberty Matters online discussion we assess the ideas of Harriet Taylor Mill and her partnership with John Stuart Mill. The authors often draw on Taylor Mill and Mill’s correspondence, edited by Friedrich von Hayek in 1951.…

Systemic Racism in Crime and Housing (February/March 2024)

By: Ramon P. DeGennaro, Claudia Williamson Kramer, Wilfred Reilly, Craig J. Richardson, and Harold A. Black February 13, 2024

A previous set of essays explored systemic racism as a potential cause of racial disparities in education and healthcare. This set focuses on similar disparities in housing and crime.

Liberty and Civic Education (November/December 2023)

By: David Davenport, Mark C. Schug, Rachel D. Humphries, and Lee Trepanier November 9, 2023

What is civic education, and why does it matter? Further, what constitutes civic education, and whose task should it be to ensure a nation's citizens are civically literate? These are the questions this edition of Liberty Matters…

Why We Don’t Need a “New” History of Capitalism (October 2023)

By: Phillip W. Magness, Bradley J. Birzer, Rachel Ferguson, and Michael J. Douma October 5, 2023

Was a single industry – cotton – the primary driver of American economic development in the 19th century, and thus the basis of wealth today? This is the claim behind what have become known as the "New Histories of Capitalism." While…

Did the American Colonies Pay Too High a Cost for Revolution? (August/September 2023)

By: Vincent Geloso, Antoine Noël, Samuel Gregg, Marcus M. Witcher, C Bradley Thompson, and Anthony Comegna August 14, 2023

If one leaves out petro-nations (e.g., Qatar, United Arab Emirates) and fiscal havens (e.g., Bermuda) from international rankings of income per person, one will find the United States at or near the top of the list (depending on the…

Adam Smith’s Emergent Rules of Justice (June/July 2023)

By: Vernon L. Smith, Brianne Wolf, Leonidas Montes, Caroline Breashears, and Peter S. Onuf June 1, 2023

June 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith's birth. Celebrations of this tercentenary abound, notably at our sister site, AdamSmithWorks. Most often known as the father or modern economics, OLL readers know that Smith's…

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