Category:History
Reddit AMA with Professor Sarah Burns, scholar of the American founding
May 5, 2017 | Post
Sarah Burns is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her research examines the intersection of political liberalization and American constitutional development with an eye toward policy implications for democratization across the globe. Professor Burns was featured in Learn Liberty’s America’s Founding series. She has also written on American history (1), American foreign policy (2,3), elections (4,5), […]
Confront, slander, reject: The anti-intellectual legacy of Karl Marx
May 5, 2017 | Post
Marx espoused confrontation and slander over careful and critical intellectual debate.
US Economic History 5 — Economic Growth in the Gilded Age
May 4, 2017 | Video
In the Gilded Age (the 1870s and 1880s), the US economy grew faster than ever. Video created with the Bill of Rights Institute to help students ace their exams. This is the fifth video in a series of nine with Professor Brian Domitrovic, which aim to be a resource for students studying for US History […]
The Long History of Music Piracy
April 20, 2017 | Post
When you’re a historian, people expect you to write history. So, twelve years ago, when I told people I was writing a dissertation about music piracy, the typical response was, “But… that’s not history.” I couldn’t blame them. The dirt was still fresh on Napster’s grave at the time, and challenges to online services such […]
US Economic History 3 — National Banks’ Rise and Fall
April 20, 2017 | Video
Does a national bank make the US economy more stable or more chaotic? Video created with the Bill of Rights Institute to help students ace their exams. This is the third video in a series of nine with Professor Brian Domitrovic, which aim to be a resource for students studying for US History exams and […]
Dan Carlin — What All of History Has in Common
April 17, 2017 | Video
Does history repeat itself? Dan Carlin, the “political Martian,” says history can’t teach us what to do next, but it can teach us who we are. Watch the full interview here.
US Economic History 2 — Interstate Commerce & the Constitution
April 13, 2017 | Video
The Constitution’s Interstate Commerce clause was supposed to liberate American markets. Video created with the Bill of Rights Institute to help students ace their exams. This is the second 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 […]
The Progressive War: Woodrow Wilson and the US entry into WWI
April 6, 2017 | Post
The American entry into the war was the apotheosis of progressivism — the high-water mark of its crusading zeal.
US Economic History 1 — How Mercantilism Started the American Revolution
April 6, 2017 | Video
The British Empire’s mercantilist plan backfired — and led to the American Revolution. Video created with the Bill of Rights Institute to help students ace their exams. This is the first video in a series of nine with Professor Brian Domitrovic, which aim to be a resource for students studying for US History exams […]
Elinor Ostrom, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, and learning to see the women who have shaped the world
March 31, 2017 | Post
Well-behaved women seldom make history, but they should.
Emma Watson is right. Feminism is about choice.
March 30, 2017 | Post
Watson offered up a simple truism about feminism that is more powerful than it might sound: “Feminism is about giving women choice.”
Marxism and Class Consciousness
March 29, 2017 | Video
Prof. Brandon Turner says libertarians can learn a lot from Karl Marx, even though they disagree with him on the nature of self-interest. Watch the full-length video on Facebook
6 women who should be on the $20 bill
March 29, 2017 | Post
We reached out to Learn Liberty professors for suggestions on great women whose achievements should earn them a place on US currency.
Mercy Otis Warren: Conscience of Great Causes
March 25, 2017 | Post
Two centuries before “women’s lib,” in the run-up to America’s Revolutionary War, Mercy Otis Warren was already a liberated woman by the standards of her day. And she did the liberating herself. In the latter half of the 18th century, Warren was an accomplished poet, playwright, pamphleteer, and historian — though much of what she […]
History, progress, and the fate of gay marriage
March 23, 2017 | Post
The future belongs to everyone, and the arc of the universe bends nowhere in particular.
Mary Wollstonecraft: Libertarian Feminist
March 21, 2017 | Post
Almost two centuries before the women’s lib movement and a full century before the suffragettes, not all women were quiet subordinates to men. In this 1996 essay, historian Jim Powell provides us with an illuminating account of the brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft, an 18th-century author and philosopher who never minced her words in defense of equal […]
Remembering the forgotten women, victims of government
March 17, 2017 | Post
in honor of Women’s History Month, I want to highlight three stories of women you probably have never heard of — victims of government.
Andrew Jackson is a bad role model for the president
March 15, 2017 | Post
Donald Trump added a portrait of Andrew Jackson to the White House Oval Office shortly after his inauguration. Why Jackson?
Vivien Kellems: "Please Indict Me!"
March 13, 2017 | Post
“All our liberties are due to [wo]men who, when their conscience has compelled them, have broken the laws of the land.”
3 women who inspired the modern libertarian movement
March 12, 2017 | Post
Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, and Ayn Rand together comprise the “founding mothers” of modern libertarianism.
In celebration of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
March 10, 2017 | Post
She was literally born out of the Liberty Movement.
How Capitalism Freed Victorian Women
March 2, 2017 | Video
Dr. Thaddeus Russell explains how capitalism offered women their own jobs, money, and freedom.
Highlights from our Reddit AMA with Professor Fabio Rojas
March 1, 2017 | Post
Dr. Rojas is a Professor of Sociology at Indiana University Bloomington, and the author of From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline (2007, The Johns Hopkins University Press). More recently, he is also the author of Theory for the Working Sociologist (2017, Columbia University Press). His research has focused on organizational behavior, political sociology, higher education, and health policy.
3 Oscar films for the radical individualist
February 24, 2017 | Post
This year’s Oscar nominations offer up a few really excellent stories about individuals resisting the pressures of both collectives and the state.