Portraits of Liberty

Despite its reputation as a dark age, the Medieval period was not devoid of intellectual substance. An example of this is William of Pagula, a 14th-century English priest and scholar who wrote The Mirror of King Edward III , a political treatise condemning the king's practice of purveyance and excessive taxation. Using a mixture of Biblical and Classical authorities, William made the moral case ag...

Born into slavery, Elizabeth Freeman gained her freedom in 1781, eighty years before the American Civil War. Freeman did not escape to Pennsylvania as was common at the time. She gained her freedom through the courts. Upon winning her case, she changed her name to Elizabeth Freeman to celebrate her new life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born between the Scottish Lowlands and Highlands, Ferguson made a name for himself writing philosophical history, an early precursor to sociology. In his famous work, An Essay on The History of Civil Society, Ferguson explained how civilization is refined over many generations  as society evolves to deal with ever-increasing complexity.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m...

Despite his upbringing in poverty and vicious racial discrimination, the black freeman James Forten rose to become one of the foremost sailmakers in Philadelphia and a crucial voice in the abolition of slavery. Though largely forgotten today, Forten defied the racial stereotypes of his day and became a symbol of black achievement in the new nation of America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

This month, we examine the often-overlooked legacy of William Graham Sumner, a 19th-century sociologist, economist, and political thinker. Despite his pivotal role in establishing sociology as a discipline at Yale, Sumner's contributions have been overshadowed, partly due to his association with Herbert Spencer, who has been incorrectly labeled a social Darwinist. The episode delves into Sumner's...

Renowned for his larger-than-life character, Karl Hess started as a conservative but slowly shifted away from the Republican party, turning towards the New Left. Eventually seeing the contradictions of both the right and the left, Hess became an anarchist without hyphens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jane Jacobs revolutionized the study of cities. She did not see them as merely areas of high population densities, but as huge laboratories for experimentation making cities the flash points of the history of human progress. Her intellectual career was spent checking the hubris of government officials. Further Reading: A City Cannot Be a Work of Art: Learning Economics and Social Theory From Jane...

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of Havel's Place in Georgetown, an episode dedicated to the dissidents of Czechoslovakia responsible for the Velvet Revolution in 1989, overthrowing the brutal Communist regime without violence or bloodshed. Find out more at Libertarianism.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming soon, a brand new podcast from Libertarianism.org... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special 50th episode of Portraits about why a layperson should study history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite his obscurity today, the French Irish economist Richard Cantillon was the first person to put forward a theory of the entrepreneur in the market economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1879, Henry George wrote Progress and Poverty, still one of the bestselling economics books of all time; in it, he argued for the abolition of all kinds of taxes but one. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marie De Gournay’s “The Equality of Men and Women” is one of the first books to use equality to define the relationships between the sexes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Though born into obscurity, Josiah Wedgwood would become a household name across the European continent over the course of his life, representing refinement and taste. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The ancient Indian writer Kautilya had more knowledge of economic affairs than any thinker for over a thousand years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The life of the subversive novelist José Rizal proves that sometimes the pen really is mightier than the sword. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born into a middle-ranking samurai family and a volatile political scene, Itagaki Taisuke would become one of the most influential figures in Japanese history. His early exposure to western ideas of liberalism led him to become a fierce advocate of constitutional government. He became the leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, which later developed into Japan's first-ever political pa...

We are taking a holiday break on the Portraits of Liberty Podcast. Look for new episodes from us come the New Year. In the meantime, be sure to check out our catalog of previous episodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four hundred before Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations, the 14th-century Andalusian statesman and scholar Ibn Khaldun discussed the division of labor, the benefits of trade, and the optimal rate of taxation. Today, historians consider Ibn Khaldun's work as the precursor to the disciplines o economics, historiography, and sociology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite being the first-ever vice president and second president, until very recently, John Adams was ignored by historians in favor of figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. But Adams was one of the practical and philosophical powerhouses of the American Revolution. Without the lifelong dedication of Adams, it is arguable the American Revolution might never have...

Beginning life as the son of a baker, Luis Cabrera Lobato rose to prominence as a lawyer and became one of the sharpest intellects of the Mexican Revolution. At the time, he was Mexico's foremost constitutional. Luis noticed that without the restraint of the law, names change, but dictators remain.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Intellectual, poet, and playwright Václav Havel began life on the fringes of Communist Czechoslovakia. Alongside fellow dissidents, Václav played a vital role in the Velvet Revolution, peacefully toppling the communist state and becoming the first president of the newly founded country. Today he is remembered for his moral integrity and biting critique of the spiritual oppression inherent in the c...

Mary Dyer left England to pursue her religious beliefs without persecution in the New World. However, once she arrived, she quickly realized the hypocrisy of the Puritan authorities, who persecuted her, even fashioning her tragic miscarriage as a "monstrous birth" in order to discredit her. Her execution, and that of many religious dissidents like her, carved out the space for the kind of religiou...

Born in Havana in 1853, José Martí witnessed the horrors of slavery at a young age and dedicated his life to fighting against imperialism and racism. Martí many things, a poet, a philosopher, journalist, professor, but above all else a patriot to Cuba. He was an anti-racist and anti-colonial thinker who criticized any form of oppression. Though he failed in his efforts to gain independence for Cub...

Today Cicero is often read-only by classical scholars and reluctant students which is a great shame because his life and philosophy reflect a sort of proto-liberalism that came to influence a wide variety of thinkers such as John Adams, John Locke, Adam Smith, Voltaire, and Montesquieu. His life and works have echoed throughout the western tradition of political philosophy. Hosted on Acast. See ac...