Portraits of Liberty investigates the lives and philosophies of thinkers throughout history who argued in favor of a freer world.

A collection of nine original essays by top philosophers introducing the major moral theories and how they support a libertarian political system. With personal stories, historical anecdotes, ...

John Locke lays out the foundational arguments of liberalism: people have rights preexisting government, and government exists to protect those rights. Nicknamed the "Father of Liberalism," Locke's ...

Spooner argues in this radical essay that the Constitution, which he frames as a legal contract, is not binding. The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no authority or ...

Kant discusses his theory of the state, concluding, “Whatever a people cannot impose upon itself cannot be imposed upon it by the legislator either.” Immanuel Kant is considered to be one of the ...

In this excerpt from *Social Statics*, Spencer makes a radical claim: that an individual may sever all connections with the state. ##1. The Right to Voluntary Outlawry As a corollary to the ...

For those interested in history, Menger’s Principles of Economics offers a way to unify gritty historical experience with pure economic theory. Carl Menger has played an interesting supporting role in ...

Minocher Rustom “Minoo” Masani was an Indian politician, a leading figure of the erstwhile Swatantra Party, a three- time Member of Parliament, and was among the founders of the Indian Liberal Group ...

In Man Versus the State, Herbert Spencer argues that as the state tries to regulate more of our lives, it inches us closer to slavery. What is essential to the idea of a slave? We primarily think of ...

Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments included this passage about spontaneous order vs planned economy. Adam Smith was a Scottish political philosopher and economist, considered one of the ...

Emma Goldman discusses the nature of the state as an institution and how it is fundamentally at odds with the dignity of the individual. Emma Goldman was a socialist anarchist activist, writer, and ...

William Graham Sumner held a professorship in political economy at Yale and did pioneering work in sociology when the field was in its infancy. In addition to doing academic work that spanned a ...