Free Thoughts
Trade War! (with Dan Ikenson)
Dan Ikenson joins us to answer one important question: is the United States in a trade war?
Explore
columns
The State of the Gaps
Kuznicki draws a parallel between the “God of the Gaps” fallacy and how some people justify the state.
columns
Code is Capital
New technologies might help integrate communities living under local, customary property law into the global economy.
Excursions
John Locke: In Search of the Radical Locke
George H. Smith explains an important controversy about when the Two Treatises was written and the influence of the Levellers on Locke.
Liberty Chronicles
Ep. 53: Here Lies Republicanism, R.I.P. (with Trevor Burrus)
We are celebrating Liberty Chronicles’ first anniversary with a special Free Thoughts/Liberty Chronicles crossover episode featuring Trevor Burrus.
columns
Slavery as Socialism
Smith explains how George Fitzhugh defended slavery on the grounds that it provides an ideal system of socialism.
Free Thoughts
What’s Facebook Done With My Data? (with Will Duffield)
Will Duffield joins us again to discuss Cambridge Analytica and the future of social media.
columns
Treating on Equal Terms: Gun Rights Beyond the Second Amendment
Gun rights are fundamentally about the balance of power between rulers and ruled, not questions of constitutional interpretation.
essays
Progress, Guaranteed
Condorcet ends his greatest work with the confident assertion that progress cannot be stopped.
Excursions
John Locke: Money and Private Property
George H. Smith explains the significance, for Locke, of the increased productivity caused by labor, and the relationship between money and property.
Building Tomorrow
How the FOSTA Rules Create a “Bootleggers and Baptists” Scenario for the 21st Century
In a parallel to Prohibition, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act will backfire by boosting demand for black market sex trafficking.
columns
Leland Yeager: In Memoriam
Horwitz remembers the life and thought of Leland Yeager (November 4, 1924 – April 23, 2018).
Liberty Chronicles
Ep. 52: The Dismal Science (with Steve Horwitz)
Steve Horwitz joins us to discuss the relationship between classical liberal history and economics.
essays
The Unlimited Tenth Epoch
Though our author wrote in hiding from a terroristic regime, his saw unlimited potential for human accomplishment.
columns
Defending Slavery by Attacking Capitalists
Smith explains how some Southerners defended chattel slavery by contrasting it favorably with “wage slavery” in the North.
Free Thoughts
Peter Van Doren Vs. MS-13
Peter Van Doren joins us again to discuss his time on jury duty.
essays
The Highs and Lows of Enlightenment
Like many of us, Condorcet got a bit carried away with praise for the Enlightenment. Unlike many of us, he tempered it with a dose of realism.
essays
Luther v. Borden: America, R.I.P.
Justice Woodbury concludes his dissent by arguing that the states cannot usurp Congress’s power to declare war in order to prevent political change.