History of Liberty

History of Liberty Seminar 2001

Historians, the State and Liberty

World HistoryPolitical Theory

03/01/2004Mises Media
The opinion that is dished out in textbooks every year by academic historians is ideologically mostly left-liberalism or left-radicalism. The effect of this is to bias what is written, especially with recent events. The historians see class conflicts as driving forces.
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

The Rise of the West

World HistoryPolitical Theory

10/16/2018Mises Media
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.
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

Intellectual Origins of Natural Rights

Philosophy and MethodologyPolitical Theory

08/26/2004Mises Media
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.
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

Origins of Science in the Age of Faith

World HistoryCalculation and Knowledge

03/01/2004Mises Media
Lessl’s field is rhetoric. The history of the relationship between faith and science shifted when the theological nucleus was removed and science was inserted. Rhetoric was left behind. Faith was erased in the middle of the nineteenth century. Kant was intensely hostile to Catholicism. He wanted to...
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

The Rise of the Nation-State

War and Foreign PolicyPolitical Theory

03/01/2004Mises Media
Most of what is said about nation-states is not true. They are neither democracies nor republics nor nations nor states. There is no natural relationship between government and state. Men have been governed by many things that are not states. Throughout most of history man has lived without a state.
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

Puritan Revolution and Republicanism

U.S. HistoryPolitical Theory

03/01/2004Mises Media
The transforming ideology of the American Revolution consists of four elements: liberalism, republicanism, English law, and Protestantism. Liberalism was developed by the Levellers, saying that natural rights could be evolved from natural law.
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

Natural Rights

Legal SystemWorld HistoryPolitical Theory

03/01/2004Mises Media
Natural law does not depend directly on God’s will. Natural law goes back to at least the scholastics and perhaps Thomas Aquinas. Modern Natural Rights theory began in 1625. Modern theory recognizes the institution the state. Natural law is thought to produce inalienable natural rights. They speak...
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

Colonial America and the American Revolution

U.S. HistoryPhilosophy and MethodologyPolitical Theory

03/01/2004Mises Media
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...
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

The US Constitution

U.S. HistoryPolitical Theory

03/01/2004Mises Media
This is a federal constitution. Federalism is the most important idea for liberty. You must maximize your choices and you need meaningful choices, made against a cultural background. Federalism requires such moral correctness that it makes it the most difficult system to maintain. Federalism always...
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History of Liberty Seminar 2001

Classical Liberal Historians

World HistoryPolitical Theory

03/01/2004Mises Media
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.
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