Klein assesses George Will’s two most renowned books, 36 years apart, Statecraft as Soulcraft (1983) and The Conservative Sensibility (2019), finding some changes upon an underlying continuity—rather like the two levels of human nature exposited by Will 1983.
The 17th-century Englishman John Cooke was one of the tyranny’s greatest enemies, being the first-ever person to prosecute a head of state for crimes against humanity.
Adherents to ancient philosophy of Stoicism were deeply committed to cosmopolitan ideals of treating all people with respect and dignity regardless of race or nationality.
Locke wanted to prove that the world is not a mere amalgam of violence and arbitrary authority and that there is something that separates a legitimate from an illegitimate government.
On Liberty is not merely a political text explaining the intricacies of how the state ought to act. It is a love letter to the individual virtues of intellectual curiosity, tolerance, and open-mindedness.
Beccaria was deeply opposed to the death penalty, a rarity for his time when most believed capital punishment was an acceptable response to many crimes.
Huang Zongxi argued for a constitutional model of government designed to benefit all people, not just the ruling class, and which stressed the importance of respecting private property rights.
Poullain provides an unapologetic and iconoclastic argument for women’s full participation in society, that they be given the same rights and access to opportunities that were afforded to their male counterparts.
The Cato Institute does not derive its name from the notoriously staunch ancient Roman Cato the Younger. Instead, it is a reference to Cato’s Letters, a collection of 138 essays written in England during the 18th century.