Category:History

September 9, 2022 | Post

The United Kingdom has been plunged into a period of national heartbreak. Whether it be on social media, in people’s homes, or on the streets, British citizens everywhere have voiced their grief and condolences at the news. And yet outsiders, especially libertarians, seem puzzled by this ostensibly bizarre, sentimental attachment the British have towards their ruler. How can a nation be so enamored with someone above their station?

July 29, 2022 | Post

Those who care about the ideas of liberty represented by the Gadsden flag must resist its co-option by forces that are completely at odds with what it stands for. The truth about its classical liberal origins must prevail.

June 22, 2022 | Post

The redemption arc around LGBTQ+ rights in Ireland shows the possibility of rapid social change in favor of greater liberty.

June 17, 2022 | Post

Freedom of speech during wartime is crucial for transparency. If this right doesn’t apply during wartime, does it even exist in any meaningful sense?

May 23, 2022 | Post

The KGB still runs Russia. In its structure of power, the same organization that inflicted terror in Soviet times is still calling the shots.

May 17, 2022 | Post

The right to privacy and freedom of contract are not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution but are essential to our personal privacy and dignity

April 6, 2022 | Post

The Prague Spring of 1968 has a legacy that proved influential in the downfall of the Eastern Bloc a generation later, and continues to inspire to this day.

March 15, 2022 | Post

At present, we are reminded that freedom is not guaranteed. The war in Ukraine is fundamentally a showdown between liberty and tyranny.

February 28, 2022 | Post

When we think of terms such as capitalism, individualism, or selfishness, one name comes to mind: Ayn Rand. But what makes Rand so significant?

February 2, 2022 | Post

Modernity is unthinkable without capitalism, yet Ayn Rand defined capitalism as an unknown ideal, one whose benefits people did not understand

January 9, 2022 | Post

One thing everyone seemingly can agree on is that Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and other pharmaceutical companies developed their Covid-19 vaccines in world-record time. Less than a year passed from the outbreak of the virus in January 2020 until a British woman received the first dose in December 2020. (And they could have been […]

December 28, 2021 | Post

In the 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 15 former Soviet republics have followed widely different trajectories.

November 18, 2021 | Post

As we witnessed during the 2020 election season, and as we are sure to witness during the upcoming holiday season, the United States Postal Service doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

October 10, 2021 | Post

Since its publication in 1957, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged continues to have a lasting impact and remains a cornerstone of pro-liberty literature

April 28, 2021 | Video

COVID-19 has upended life as we know it. Now more than ever, the world can feel confusing and chaotic. We wanted to cut through the noise and hear real stories from real people all around the world, so we decided to interview 12 people, in 6 countries. The only stipulation was that they had to be willing to speak openly and honestly about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We realized that despite the polarization around this topic, and intensity of opinions being shared, no one person really knows what’s going on. To move forward we need intellectual humility and empathy –– with a focus on our shared humanity –– especially at a time like this. T

his documentary shares a diversity of COVID-related stories and perspectives to highlight the importance of embracing our individuality and maintaining intellectual openness through this time.

#GlobalPandemic #SharedHumanity #Lockdown

April 28, 2021 | Video

Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the Vietnamese immigrant population in the United States has grown significantly, from about 231,000 in 1980, to nearly 1.3 million in 2012. The surge happened mostly during the 1980s and 1990s.

Hear from Vietnamese refugee, Viet Tran, who talks about his past struggles with fleeing his country in search for a better life. We go back to 1980.

“People will escape no matter what, as long as the government is harsh on their people.” – Viet Tran

This video answers the following questions:

How does government impact the lives of the ones they govern?
How do borders impact the people that they divide?
What does a life without freedom, justice, and democracy really look like?

April 28, 2021 | Video

War Sucks, What is it Good For? As the song goes, ‘absolutely nothing.’ Wars have historically failed to achieve the desired outcome of stabilization, all the while wasting taxpayers’ money, and causing sustained misery in the regions affected by conflict and resulting in tragically high levels of casualties, both military and civilian.

Conflict should be avoided as much as possible, with the only exception being as a last resort in defense of liberty. Learn Liberty believes that this can be achieved by promoting global interdependence through diplomacy, cooperation, and free trade. Alongside its obvious casualties, war invariably impedes trade, hinders economic development, and results in a loss of individual liberty.

December 14, 2017 | Post

I have tried to avoid saying much about the “Confederate statues” kerfuffle. That’s partly because the issue is more complicated than it’s often made out to be.

September 6, 2017 | Post

As a believer in small government, I usually favor anything that reduces taxes. But this tax break has wreaked havoc on American health care.

July 4, 2017 | Post

The luck of the Spanish turned out to be their misfortune, and the curse of the English turned out to be a blessing.

July 3, 2017 | Video

Taxes, protests, massacre, and revolution — this is our full America’s Founding series in one glorious video. For more US history, watch 

June 16, 2017 | Post

The following is a lightly edited, slightly condensed transcript of the talk “Adam Darwin: Emergent Order in Biology and Economics,” presented by Matt Ridley at the Adam Smith Institute in 2012. I’ve called my lecture “Adam Darwin” to stress how congruent the philosophies of Adam Smith and Charles Darwin are. The common theme, of course, […]

June 1, 2017 | Video

The US became a global economy, but also struggled with stagflation and trade conflicts. Video created with the Bill of Rights Institute to help students ace their exams. This is the final video in our series with Professor Brian Domitrovic, which aims to be a resource for students studying for US History exams, and to […]

May 25, 2017 | Video

The American economy boomed in the years after World War II. Video created with the Bill of Rights Institute to help students ace their exams. This is the eighth video in a series of nine with Professor Brian Domitrovic, which aim to be a resource for students studying for US History exams, and to provide […]