Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American nonprofit foundation
headquartered in
Carmel, Indiana, that promotes the
libertarian views of its founder,
Pierre F. Goodrich, through publishing, conferences, and educational resources. The operating mandate of the Liberty Fund was set forth in an unpublished memo written by Goodrich "to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals".
[Robert T. Grimm (ed.), ''Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, pp. 125–128]
History
Liberty Fund was founded by entrepreneur
Pierre F. Goodrich in 1960. Goodrich, "one of the richest men in Indiana", was involved with coal mines, corn production, telecommunications, and securities.
Goodrich was a member of the neoliberal or classically liberal
Mont Pelerin Society, an international organization of academics, intellectuals, and business leaders who advocated free market economic policies. Goodrich was also an acolyte of
Austrian School
The Austrian school is a Heterodox economics, heterodox Schools of economic thought, school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivat ...
economist
Ludwig von Mises. Historian
Donald T. Critchlow notes that Liberty Fund was one of the endowed
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
foundations that laid the way for the election of U.S. President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
in 1980.
In 1997, the fund received an $80 million donation from Goodrich's wife, Enid, increasing its assets to over $300 million.
In November 2015, the fund announced the construction of a $22 million headquarters in
Carmel, Indiana.
Projects
The foundation has published several books covering history, politics, philosophy, law, education, and economics. These include:
* ''Liberty Fund's Natural Law and Enlightenment Series''
* ''
Alexis de Tocqueville's
Democracy in America (Historical-Critical Edition)''
* ''The Works and Correspondence of
Adam Smith (Glasgow Edition)''
*
David Ricardo, ''
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'', 2010.
* ''The Works and Correspondence of
David Ricardo'' (Edited by
Piero Sraffa and
Maurice Dobb, 2005)
Conference program
Since its inception, Liberty Fund has hosted more than 6,000 small, Socratic conferences, holding these conferences primarily in North America, Europe, and Latin America. It has also held a small number of conferences in other regions of the world, including Asia, Australia, and North Africa. Conferences are organized primarily by scholars who work with Liberty Fund staff to establish a theme and select readings that explore certain aspects of liberty. Conference subject areas have included economics, history, philosophy, religion, literature, law, and, most recently, genomics and artificial intelligence.
Individual conferences cover a broad range of topics and themes, including political theory and history, economics, literature, fine arts, science and technology, and law. Authors and thinkers discussed include
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
,
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...
,
Jane Austen
Jane Austen ( ; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for #List of works, her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century ...
,
Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...
,
Mary Wollstonecraft,
Fredrick Douglass, and economists
Friedrich Hayek,
Milton Friedman, and
James Buchanan. Past conference titles include “Freedom and Rebellion in
Dostoevsky’s ''
The Brothers Karamazov"'', “Wisdom, Knowledge and the Good Life”, “Hobbes, Liberty, and the Rule of Law”, “Liberty and Power in the Mexican Revolution”, and “Civil Society in the Plague Year”.
Major contributions to specific intellectual disciplines have been a series of conferences led by economists James Buchanan,
Gordon Tullock, and
Geoffrey Brennan on
Public Choice Theory
Public choice, or public choice theory, is "the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems of political science." Gordon Tullock, 9872008, "public choice," '' The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics''. . It includes the study of ...
. Professor
Henry Manne spearheaded conferences from the late 1970s to the early 2000s that made a considerable contribution to the field of
Law and Economics. Scholars
William B. Allen,
Forrest McDonald,
Lance Banning,
Gordon S. Wood, and
Jack P. Green have served as either directors or discussion leaders of dozens of conferences on the early history of the American Republic.
Publishing program
Liberty Fund’s publishing program began in 1971 with the publication of ''Education in a Free Society,'' coauthored by Goodrich and
Wabash College professor
Benjamin A. Rogge, a founding director of Liberty Fund. Since then, Liberty Fund has published more than 400 books exploring the idea of liberty across many disciplines, including economics, political thought, American history, law, and education. As part of Liberty Fund’s commitment to the exchange of ideas, Liberty Fund keeps in print many titles that would otherwise be unavailable.
Some of its most popular or influential publications include:
* ''
The Federalist Papers
''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The ...
'' by
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
,
John Jay
John Jay (, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris (1783), Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United ...
, and
James Madison (ed. by George W. Carey and James McClellan)
* ''
The Theory of Moral Sentiments'' by
Adam Smith
* ''Leisure, the Basis of Culture'' by
Josef Pieper
* ''Liberty, Order, and Justice'' by James McClellan
* ''
Omnipotent Government'' by
Ludwig von Mises
Liberty Fund Online
Besides its main website, the Liberty Fund hosts four websites, including:
* ''Law & Liberty'' focuses on the classical liberal tradition of how law and political thought shapes a society of free and responsible persons. Articles and commentary are offered by leading scholars covering a range of legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy. (www.lawliberty.org)
* ''The Online Library of Liberty'' is an extensive digital library of scholarly works focused on individual liberty and free markets. The OLL provides a curated collection of resources available at no charge. More than 2,000 works, often classic texts that are rare or unaffordable to most, are available for downloading. (oll.libertyfund.org)
* ''Adam Smith Works'' is an investigation of the scholarship of Adam Smith, the Scottish Enlightenment economist and philosopher. To further the exploration of Smith's works, Liberty Fund received a multi-million grant from the
John Templeton Foundation in 2016 to spearhead conferences, host scholars, and create a website around Adam Smith's life and scholarship, notably Smith's
''Theory of Moral Sentiments'' (1759) and
''Wealth of Nations'' (1776). The website includes educational tools for use by elementary, middle school, high school, and college students. It includes Smith's
''Lectures on Jurisprudence'' and writings on astronomy, ancient logic, and ancient physics. (www.adamsmithworks.org)
* ''The Library of Economics and Liberty (Econlib.org)'' with its podcast EconTalk hosted by
Russ Roberts long-time
Stanford professor and current president of Jerusalem’s
Shalem College. For more than fifteen years, Roberts has interviewed several hundred scholars and thought leaders, including
Mark Andreessen,
Milton Friedman,
Richard Epstein,
Thomas Sowell,
Cass Sunstein,
Jeffrey Sachs,
Anne Applebaum,
Ronald Coase,
Freeman Dyson, and
Deirdre McCloskey. (www.econtalk.org)
Intellectual Portrait Series
Liberty Fund’s Intellectual Portrait Series contains in-depth conversations with more than thirty of the world’s leading academics in economics, political thought, law, and other disciplines. Liberty Fund also makes available detailed educational documentaries on Adam Smith and
Friedrich Hayek and features historical overviews of the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
, and the
Constitution of the United States
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...
.
Reception
In his book ''
The Assault on Reason'', former U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
wrote that between 2002 and 2004, 97% of the attendees at Liberty Fund training seminars for judges were
Republican administration appointees. Gore said that such conferences and seminars are one of the reasons that judges who regularly attend such conferences "are generally responsible for writing the most radical pro-corporate, antienvironmental, and activist decisions". Referring to what he calls the "Big Three"—the
Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment,
George Mason University
George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...
's Law & Economics Center, and the Liberty Fund—Gore adds, "These groups are not providing unbiased judicial education. They are giving multithousand-dollar vacations to federal judges to promote their
radical right-wing agenda at the expense of the public interest."
See also
*
Economic liberalism
*
Libertarian conservatism
*
Libertarianism in the United States
*
Right-libertarianism
References
External links
*
EDIRC listing(provided by
RePEc)
{{Authority control
Book publishing companies based in Indiana
Conservative organizations in the United States
Libertarian organizations based in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in Indiana
Organizations established in 1960
1960 establishments in Indiana