History of Liberty

What's History of Liberty about?

This 25-lecture instructional seminar presents a reinterpretation of the history of liberty from the ancient world—an ambitious agenda, but a wonderfully successful conference. Hosted at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, 24-30 June 2001.

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History of Liberty episodes:

10.16.2018
The Rise of the West
The European Miracle was one in which humans achieved sustained growth for the first time on earth. Why Europe? Because of European decentralization and private enterprise.
08.26.2004
Intellectual Origins of Natural Rights
There was a natural law tradition from antiquity and the middle ages. Natural law is the oldest and most frequently used concept of political theory. Natural law is the principles that are to be established if justice were to prevail....
03.01.2004
Historians, the State and Liberty
The opinion that is dished out in textbooks every year by academic historians is ideologically mostly left-liberalism or left-radicalism. The effect of this is to bias what is written, especially with recent events. The historians see class conflicts as driving...
03.01.2004
Origins of Science in the Age of Faith
Lessl’s field is rhetoric. The history of the relationship between faith and science shifted when the theological nucleus was removed and science was inserted. Rhetoric was left behind. Faith was erased in the middle of the nineteenth century. Kant was...
03.01.2004
The Rise of the Nation-State
Most of what is said about nation-states is not true. They are neither democracies nor republics nor nations nor states. There is no natural relationship between government and state. Men have been governed by many things that are not states....
03.01.2004
Puritan Revolution and Republicanism
The transforming ideology of the American Revolution consists of four elements: liberalism, republicanism, English law, and Protestantism. Liberalism was developed by the Levellers, saying that natural rights could be evolved from natural law.
03.01.2004
Natural Rights
Natural law does not depend directly on God’s will. Natural law goes back to at least the scholastics and perhaps Thomas Aquinas. Modern Natural Rights theory began in 1625. Modern theory recognizes the institution the state. Natural law is thought...
03.01.2004
Colonial America and the American Revolution
Albion’s Seed is a great book about the four migration folkways into the colonies from Great Britain during 1629 through 1775. The groups had many characteristics in common which may be what made future union possible, but the groups were...
03.01.2004
The US Constitution
This is a federal constitution. Federalism is the most important idea for liberty. You must maximize your choices and you need meaningful choices, made against a cultural background. Federalism requires such moral correctness that it makes it the most difficult...
03.01.2004
Classical Liberal Historians
People learn their political views through what they believe about history. Memorials function to push certain interpretations, e.g. about the War Between the States and the greatness of rulers like Lincoln and FDR.
03.01.2004
Anti-Federalist Traditions until the Civil War
Jeffersonian States Rights Doctrine until the Civil War was grounded in three freedom documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and The Treaty of Paris of 1783. Those documents emphasized independent states, not a single nation or union.
03.01.2004
Southern Secession and Reconstruction
You can’t take Southern secession seriously because of slavery. Illinois is worth pondering because Lincoln supported the laws against blacks because he did not think that free blacks could ever mix with whites. A superior position was assigned to the...
03.01.2004
The Progressive Era
The Progressive Era covered the turn of the 19th-20th centuries until about WWI. It delivered such delights as the Federal Reserve. Accelerated statism with a philosophical veneer favored experts on boards making economic decisions efficiently. This era birthed the regulatory...
03.01.2004
The Rise of the American Empire
One of the problems of the American Empire is that there is a lot of empire denial going around. You cannot want to rule the world and yet say that what you value is laissez-faire economics (like National Review does).
03.01.2004
Bolshevism and Democratic Socialism
The 1917 Revolution gave birth to both the reality and the myth of the Bolsheviks and the democratic left. The social democrats rejected the violence which was part of the communist party. They claimed to follow a democratic path to...
03.01.2004
Theory and History
Economic theory is essential for understanding history. It is difficult to interpret data without economic theory. Theory cannot come from data. All states are aggressive. All wars require economic resources. More liberal states will pursue more aggressive policies. The biggest...
03.01.2004
The New Deal
Certain themes that relate to the New Deal between 1933 and 1938 ended in 1938 when FDR moved on to repair all the problems of the world, not just the country. The Congress and the people were receptive to all...
03.01.2004
The History of Taxation
Charles Adams is a rare tax historian who leads us back to Greeks and Romans and the history of liberty. The Battle of Marathon was critical for Greek civilization to seize control of Western Civilization. The Greeks had no direct...
03.01.2004
Stalinism, National Socialism, and Fascism
WWI was a kind of turning point. Bolshevism, National Socialism and fascism are related ideologies which surfaced after the war. Fascism was the wave of the future in 1920 with its notion of government central planning.
03.01.2004
Civil Rights and Statism
Several court cases must be mentioned. Each makes a point. Plessey v. Ferguson: Segregation Separate but equal is ok. Brown v. Board of Education: Separate schools are inherently unequal. Green v. County School Board of New Kent County: Freedom of...
03.01.2004
Origins of War: Civil War and World War I
Mises was well-versed in history, but many economists are not. History must be understood and revised. Wilson distorted the truth about how America entered WWI. The propaganda was not to be questioned. Wrong lessons are taught. The 1929 depression was...
03.01.2004
Great Society and the Republican Welfare State
Thomas Sowell’s book, Civil Rights, lays bare many of the myths of the Great Society. What did ordinary people do before an advanced welfare state? Anti-poverty programs like the 1965 Job Corps did not turn out well. There was less...
03.01.2004
The National Security State
The warfare state does not want peace, it wants war. Conducting a permanent war requires three things. There must be an underlying convincing belief that the war is worthwhile. Some interest groups need to stand to gain money or power....
03.01.2004
Historians and the Welfare-Warfare State
Murray Rothbard popularized the concept of the welfare-warfare state. He didn’t like either of them. He knew that if the state was doing anything there was plunder involved. Welfare was any handout from the government to anyone. One book that...
03.01.2004
The Role of the Intellectuals
The role of the intellectual is a perennial question. Why do they act the way they do? Why are they hostile to the free market? Is the state really virtuous and the market really vicious? Mises thought the anti-capitalist mentality...

What's History of Liberty about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

History of Liberty episodes:

The Rise of the West

Intellectual Origins of Natural Rights

Historians, the State and Liberty

Origins of Science in the Age of Faith

The Rise of the Nation-State

Puritan Revolution and Republicanism

Natural Rights

Colonial America and the American Revolution

The US Constitution

Classical Liberal Historians

Anti-Federalist Traditions until the Civil War

Southern Secession and Reconstruction

The Progressive Era

The Rise of the American Empire

Bolshevism and Democratic Socialism

Theory and History

The New Deal

The History of Taxation

Stalinism, National Socialism, and Fascism

Civil Rights and Statism

Origins of War: Civil War and World War I

Great Society and the Republican Welfare State

The National Security State

Historians and the Welfare-Warfare State

The Role of the Intellectuals