A Radical Experiment in Liberty: A conversation with Brad Birzer

The Liberty Exchange
E27 -

Brad Birzer’s new book explores the ideas and events that led Americans to independence in 1776.

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Hosts
Jonathan Fortier
Guests
Brad Birzer

Bradley J. Birzer holds the Russell Amos Kirk Chair in American Studies at Hillsdale College, where he has taught for over two decades.

A graduate of Notre Dame and Indiana University, he specializes in American history, Catholic intellectual tradition, and conservative thought. He is the author of acclaimed biographies of Russell Kirk, J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Dawson, and The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty published by the American Institute of Economic Research in 2026. Birzer co-​founded The Imaginative Conservative in 2010 and is widely regarded as one of the leading voices connecting humanism, Catholic thought, and the American conservative and classical liberal tradition.

Jonathan Fortier talks with Brad Birzer about his recent book, The Declaration of Independence: A Radical Experiment in Liberty.

Drawing heavily on the letters, pamphlets, and political arguments of the era, Birzer’s book traces how a series of imperial crises gradually transformed colonial resistance into a revolutionary movement. Along the way, it reveals how debates about liberty, authority, and the rights of Englishmen shaped the political consciousness of the American colonies.