June 2023: The Challenges of Democracy in a Diverse Society
Please join us in June 2023 for a Virtual Reading Group with Scott Yenor.
Pre-registration is required, and we ask you to register only if you can be present for ALL sessions. All readings are available online. You may use promo code VRG2023 to receive 35% off your purchase at Liberty Fund Books. Participants who successfully complete ALL sessions will be eligible to receive an Amazon e-gift certificate.
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 political community that is both multi-racial and democratic. If people vote with their ethnos or think that voting for their ethnic group is in their interests, then the vision of the government is one where different ethnic groups extract benefits for their group from the rest of the groups. Democracy is difficult in those circumstances.
The promise of liberalism is the promise of overcoming the pull of ethnic groups, but is that promise realistic? Recent episodes in American history make this a much more live question than it was twenty or even fifty years ago. We are going to travel back and see what Alexis de Tocqueville has to say about this question because, in his view, America was the very first country that raised the question of multi-racial democracy in his unjustly neglected "Some Considerations on the Present State and Probable Futures of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States." He was extremely pessimistic, but for interesting and important reasons. His thoughts get to the nature of race and race relations--and to the prerequisites for a political community, uncluttered by the cliches and controversies of today.
Session I: Tuesday, June 6, 2023, 2:00-3:00 pm EDT, The General Problem of Multi-Racial Democracy and the Fate of the American Indians
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Chapter 10, “Some Considerations on the Present State and Probable Future of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States” (pp. 515-547)
Session II: Tuesday, June 13, 2023, 2:00-3:00 pm EDT, The Problem of Anglos and Slavery
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Chapter 10, “Some Considerations on the Present State and Probable Future of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States” (pp. 548-572(ending with first paragraph))
Session III: Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 2:00-3:00 pm EDT, The Union during and after Slavery
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Chapter 10, “Some Considerations on the Present State and Probable Future of the Three Races That Inhabit the Territory of the United States” (pp. 572(starting with second paragraph)-582)
Frederick Douglaass, “The United States Cannot Remain Half- Slave and Half-Free”, April 16, 1883
Virtual Reading Groups
- One Fell Swoop: Reading All of Shakespeare’s Plays
- June 2023: The Challenges of Democracy in a Diverse Society
- April 2023: Understanding Reconstruction - the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
- March 2023: Foundations of Modern Environmentalism
- February 2023: Bruno Leoni: Freedom and the Law
- January 2023: Oakeshott’s Moral Vision
- January 2023: The Messiness of Progress: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and David Hume’s Essays and Histories
- December 2022: Classical Tragedy and the World of Ideas
- December 2022: J.S. Mill “Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion"
- November 2022: The Election of 1800: Jefferson v. Adams
- October 2022: Shakespeare’s First Tetralogy
- September 2022: The Evolution of American Federalism
- September 2022: Liberty and Virtue in the Axial Age
- August 2022: Jane Austen’s Persuasion: Aristocracy, Independence, and Economics
- May 2022: THE BILL OF RIGHTS: SELECT CASES IN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
- April 2022: Education in a Free Society
- March 2022: Mary Wollstonecraft and the Rights of Women
- March 2022: Ancient v Modern Liberty
- February 2022: Joseph Schumpeter’s “Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy”
- January 2022: James Madison and the Conflict Between the Executive and Legislative Branches
- November 2021: Pericles' Funeral Oration
- September 2021: Celebrate Constitution Day
- August 2021: Agriculture, the State, and Liberty
- June 2021: Adam Ferguson’s History of Civil Society
- May 2021: The Colonial Origins of the Bill of Rights