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Representative government, freedom of religion, the right to privacy - these are just some of the liberties of the modern world which we cherish. But at what cost? After the French Revolution and the subsequent rise and fall of Napoleon, the French classical liberal Benjamin Constant undertook an examination of ancient liberty as compared to modern liberty, in a bid to defend the modern liberal project against its detractors. But Constant is honest about the downsides of the modern liberal regime, and explains what rights and powers from the ancient world modern men can no longer exercise.

Benjamin Constant's The Liberty of Ancients Compared with that of Moderns: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/constant-the-liberty-of-ancients-compared-with-that-of-moderns-1819

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780141191751

Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780684827902

Herodotus' Histories: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9781400031146

Stendhal's The Red and the Black: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780140447644

Julius Caesar's The Gallic War: https://bookshop.org/a/25626/9780674990807

New Humanists is brought to you by the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/

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Music: Save Us Now by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com