Events

Events

History and the Science of Liberty

In his 1775 "Give Me Liberty" speech, Patrick Henry told the Virginia Convention "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past." History shows that the story of human progress is the story of liberty. Among all the social sciences, history has a special place, for the key to understanding institutions, governments, laws, and the economic, social, and legal experience of liberty is in history.

Dinner Speaker: Tom G. Palmer, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute, and Director of Cato University

Download a podcast of “History and the Science of Liberty”

The Experience of Liberty

Is the idea of liberty just an idea thought up by clever philosophers, or have a few philosophers formulated theories about a particular kind of human experience—the experience of living as a free human being? Survey the history of liberty over 4,600 years and see how, as Thucydides taught, history is philosophy teaching by example.

Speaker: Tom G. Palmer, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute, and Director of Cato University

Download a podcast of “The Experience of Liberty”

The American Enlightenment and Revolution

In 1815 John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson, ""What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it." Follow the story of the American Enlightenment and its heroes from the earliest days of the British colonies to American Independence.

Speaker: Robert McDonald, Professor of History, United States Military Academy

Download a podcast of “The American Enlightenment and Revolution”

The Libertarian Synthesis

The philosophy of liberty emerged from the enjoyment of liberties, as thinkers in morality, social science, history, and law saw common patterns and reinforcing insights. Libertarianism (historically known as "liberalism") began to emerge in the early modern period, but its framework has become the operating system of the modern world. Libertarian ideas of individual rights, spontaneous social order, and the rule of law emerged as part of a mutually reinforcing synthesis.

Speaker: Tom G. Palmer, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute, and Director of Cato University

Download a podcast of “The Libertarian Synthesis”

The Evolution of the Ideas of Liberty

The fascinating story of the history of the ideas of liberty involves both intellectual debate and institutional evolution; the shift from "liberties" to liberty is an exciting story that transformed the world.

Speaker: Jacob Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, McGill University

Download a podcast of “The Evolution of the Ideas of Liberty”

War, Foreign Affairs, and American Government

Foreign military interventionism has been a primary driver of the loss of domestic liberty and the growth of the state, and libertarians should retain their skepticism of such interventions. On the other hand, U.S. cultural engagement through trade and peaceful exchange is consistent with the Founders' vision and would serve us well today.

Dinner Speaker: Christopher Preble, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute

Download a podcast of “War, Foreign Affairs, and American Government”

Libertarian Conceptions of Order

It's common to think that order must be created, instilled, imposed, but in fact most of the forms of order that structure our lives emerge spontaneously, without conscious planning or imposition. Language, markets, morals, and even laws can-and-do evolve without design and are all the more orderly for it.

Speaker: Jacob Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, McGill University

Download a podcast of “Libertarian Conceptions of Order”

America to the Civil War and Beyond

American history is a story of liberty, but also of oppression and violence. The growth of the new republic and the emerging conflict over the great contradiction of slavery will be detailed, with special attention to the libertarians who led the charge against that horror, as well as the terrible war that tore the nation apart and the conflicts over freedom until the Great War.

Speaker: Robert McDonald, Professor of History, United States Military Academy

Download a podcast of “American to the Civil War and Beyond”

Peace and Toleration

Religious toleration is one of the great wellsprings of liberty, perhaps the most significant in European history. The emergence of peaceful coexistence and the ideas and the institutions that fostered it are central to the libertarian tradition.

Speaker: Jacob Levy, Tomlinson Professor of Political Theory, McGill University

Download a podcast of “Peace and Toleration”

Transformations of American Government from WWI to Today

Contemporary American government is addicted to welfare statism and never-ending wars. The roots of the welfarewarfare-state will be connected to earlier conflicts and traced up to "compassionate conservatism" and Obamacare, the wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and the current stresses and strains on the American constitutional order.

Speaker: Robert McDonald, Professor of History, United States Military Academy

Download a podcast of “Transformations of American Government from WWI to Today”

The Future History of Liberty

The failures of grand narratives that claim to know the future are instructive and offer us insights, not only into the nature of history and freedom, but to how we can exercise our freedoms to secure a future of liberty, peace, limited government, and prosperity.

Dinner Speaker: Jason Kuznicki, Editor, Cato Unbound

Download a podcast of “The Future History of Liberty”