The Greatest Little Town You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
How a Black haven for freedom and self-reliance helped to inspire the Harlem Renaissance
Essays
The American Revolution and Women’s Rights
The new republic didn’t enfranchise women, but it built the tools that later generations would use.
Liberalism and Civilization
In defense of a word. And a worldview.
Jefferson’s Liberal Morals
The Moral Sense Can Always Err. That’s Why It Must Be Exercised.
Why States Nationalize
Economists have many answers, but the truth may be larger than they know.
The Hard-Won Lessons of Cold War Liberalism
Twentieth-century liberal intellectuals stood firm against the totalizing ideologies of left and right. Their insights remain valuable today.
The Eighteenth Brumaire and Collective Wrongs
What Napoleon’s nephew can teach us about populism.
The Eighteenth Brumaire and Collective Wrong
What Napoleon’s nephew can teach us about populism.
A Civic Education That Extends America
Educating the next generation in American civic culture has always been important. Now more than ever, we must extend that promise to all.
Philip Freneau: The Poet We Need Right Now
Nations always tell stories about themselves. Philip Freneau’s “The Rising Glory of America“ tells an especially timely one.
Against Friends, Against Enemies
On the liberalism of productive ambiguity. And pineapples.
Civic Education for Liberal Freedom
To address our civic disintegration, we must reprioritize a civics of reflective patriotism: grateful for America, while perpetually questioning and arguing.
The Liberal Spirit of System
The “man of system” is a famous figure in the work of Adam Smith, and not in a good way. And yet we all think in systems. They can be both beautiful and helpful. What gives?
Ambition, Character, and Liberty
Ancient Roman moralists mistrusted ambition, which they connected to bribery and flattery. The powerful men around President Donald Trump show the dangers of ambition in its classical sense.
One Panic After Another
What holds up society? Equilibria. If you think that the sky is about to fall, you should ask why it hasn’t happened already.
At a Hinge Moment in History, We Must Build a Liberal Future
Lessons from history for Liberalism.org