History of Liberty

Mises Institute
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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. Download the complete audio of this event (ZIP) here.

  1. 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. Property rights were well-defined and well-defended. Feudalism was of the contract variety. City states and chartered towns arose. The freedoms that people fought for were primarily economic freedoms. Political freedoms followed. The middle ages were not the dark ages they were portrayed to be. The rule of law required little or no involvement of the state. The ruler was under the law. The West even held a social taboo on the expression of envy. Historian Ralph Raico explains why all of this contributed to the rise of human rights and economic prosperity in the West — and why it happened there first. From a lecture presented at the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

  2. 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. Or, it is the scientific laws of man and his environment. From the 5th century until the end of the 18th century the doctrine of natural law as a moral philosophy played a major role. Legislative law which rules today is the opposite of natural law. In some ways Aristotle was an ancestor to the natural rights tradition, seen clearly in his view of property rights. He preferred private property, common use. Most of us prefer private property, private use.  Christianity was born with the concept of natural law. It is at the center of our idea of individuality. This idea is linked to modern natural rights theory. Thomas Aquinas‘s pinnacle is the natural law doctrine. For him there was no conflict between faith and reason. Natural law is not God’s will. It is God’s plan. We call it freedom. Aquinas never imagined a coercive state. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

  3. 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. Many people in America thought that authority still derived from the King. Others understood that authority was vested in the people of the state. It took five years for the Articles to be unanimously approved. In 1786-87 there was no popular demand for a strong and energetic government. Very secretly a constitution was created through compromise. Hamilton inveigled the world into federalism. The anti-federalists were mostly independent land owners. They never had a book of their views like the federalists. They liked the Articles. They believed that a weak federal government was the source of liberty. They thought the Philadelphia creation would end up a dictatorship. They feared federal bureaucracy. The federalists gave the anti-federalists The Bill of Rights as a compromise. Thomas Jefferson shared most of the anti-federalists’ views. The 1798 Kentucky Resolutions defined "States Rights". They were the basis of nullification. There was no common judge. This became the standard view of federal-state relations in the South. The theory of sovereignty did not come up. The rise of Lincoln reduced the southern states into a minority position. Authentic federalism is a States Rights interpretation of the Constitution.   From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

  4. 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 socialism. They turned Marx into a wise man that should not be taken too literally. A coalition against fascists arose. Social democrats made common cause with the communists. There is reason to suspect that Stalin knew what he was doing bringing Hitler to power. Since the 1930s the enemy of the left has been fascism. The social democrats successfully split from the communists. The end of the cold war looks like the end of WWII. The left won the cold war. The right disappeared. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

  5. 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 choice desegregation plan unconstitutional. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education: Busing was appropriate. Griggs v. Duke Power Co.: Not only intentional job discrimination is prohibited by 1964 Civil Rights Act, but also employment practices that will have a disparate impact on applicants unless you can prove they are job-related. Steel Workers of America v. Weber: You don’t find the law in the language of the law, but only in the spirit. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was upheld as constitutional under the Commerce Clause in Heart of Atlanta Motel Inc. v. U.S. Thomas Sowell’s book is Civil Rights. Martin Luther King did not believe that capitalism could meet the needs of poor people and that some form of democratic socialism would be preferable. Feminist economics is irrational about comparable worth. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

  6. 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. During the early 19th century Benjamin Constant was a great Swiss-French political activist and historian, but he was never as well-known as Alexis de Tocqueville. Constant was one of the first thinkers to go by the name of Liberal. Madame de Stael was Constant’s partner. Ancient Liberty was not fitted to the Liberty of the Moderns which was based on individual civil liberties. Constant influenced a group called the Industrialists whose framework of history was the history of class conflict. Some classes like farmers and merchants were productive. Exploitive classes like the state used force to steal from the producers. Marx got the class conflict theory from these French classical liberals. Alexis de Tocqueville often created conflicting positions. His famous two-volume work, Democracy in America (1835), described America as a land of ploughshares and Russia as a land of swords. America a land of freedom; Russia a land of servitude. He admired Christianity, but was not a believer.  Lord Acton was most famous for the remark, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Acton was an historian and a moralist. To him, natural rights came from God. Too many historians exonerate bad men. Acton said that this should not happen. The courageous historian will dig deeply and lay it all out. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

  7. 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 also different. Puritans hated Quakers. Everybody hated Catholics. The competing regional cultures created quite a laissez-faire outcome between the community-based groups and more individualistic groups. The Revolution had been profoundly argued well in advance. It wanted to conserve the good things of their past British lives. In the 1830s disputes centered on the United States being either a compact school of independent states forming a confederation or a nationalist school of a single people in the aggregate. The British thought they were dealing with thirteen independent and sovereign states. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

  8. 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 poverty before the programs. Federal aid to education, like Head Start, did not stop any cycle of poverty. There was no difference in performance. Medicare for the elderly drove prices up everywhere while the average aged person was not better off. Medicaid for the poor was simply a transfer program. The poor were hooked on the handouts because they were rewarded for not working. Social welfare policy makes being poor attractive. Tax-free benefits gave recipients income that was well above what they could earn. Destructive signals are sent by underclass policies. Welfare spending drives out private charitable giving. From the 2001 History of Liberty seminar.

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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. Download the complete audio of this event (ZIP) here.

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  • Creator
    Mises Institute
  • Years Active
    2010 - 2018
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean

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