Adams' Speech on U.S. Foreign Policy
Cicero: Treatise on the Commonwealth
Commentary on the Book of Genesis
Defense of the American System
Dwight Eisenhower on Bureaucratic Government
Emmerich de Vattel on the Law of Nations
Fear God and Take Your Own Part
Francis Lieber on Self-Government
Franklin Roosevelt on Judges
Frederick Douglass on Religion and Human Dignity
George Washington's Farewell Address
Hamilton on the Nature of Rights
Henry Cabot Lodge on Independence
Henry Clay on the Seminole War
Herbert Hoover on Liberty
Irving Kristol on Entitlement
James Madison on Inalienable Rights
James Madison on Manufactures
James Monroe on Self-Rule
Thomas Jefferson on Wartime Civil Liberties
John Adams on Rights of Property
John Locke on Legislative Power
John Marshall on Legislation
Judicial Usurpations in Constitutional
Margaret Thatcher on Morals of the State
Mikhail Gorbachev on Trade Restrictions
This is an excerpt from Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman, a book originally published by the University of Chicago Press in 1962. Friedman is a leading U.S. economist and influential writer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976 and was later awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a National Medal of Science in 1988. Friedman is a strong advocate of economic freedom.
Pericles on Defending Freedom
This is an excerpt from Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke, originally written in 1790. Burke was a leader of the English Whig Party during the late 1700's and one of the most important political philosophers of the era. Reflections was his answer to the outbreak of the French Revolution, which he recognized as a disaster with prophetic clarity before that fact became obvious to everyone else following the numerous bloodbaths, the Reign of Terror and its culmination in despotism under the Emperor Napoleon. Burke was a fierce critic of social upheavals and wholesale innovation to long standing constitutional systems.
Sandra Day O'Connor on the Majesty of Law
This is an excerpt from The History of Freedom, published by the Macmillan Company in 1907. The book was a collection of essays by Lord Acton on the subject of freedom throughout history. This particular essay was originally delivered as an address entitled "The History of Freedom in Antiquity" to members of the Bridgnorth Institution in 1877. Lord Acton served as a member of the British House of Commons in the middle of the 1800's. He later served as a Professor of History at Cambridge University and as editor of a Catholic journal called the Rambler. Lord Acton was a leading historical scholar and a well published author. He was known as one of the most articulate defenders of religious and political liberty.
This is an excerpt from Alan Dershowitz's commentary on the Scopes Trial of 1925. This commentary is found as the Introduction to a book called The Scopes Trial published by Gryphon Editions in 1990. Dershowitz has spent most of his career as a law professor at Harvard University and is a high profile criminal defense attorney. He is a noted author and influential modern commentator.
This is an excerpt from The Tempting of America by Robert Bork, a book published by the Free Press in 1990. Judge Bork served on the faculty at Yale Law School from 1962 to 1981. He served as Solicitor General from 1973 to 1977; acting Attorney General from 1973 to 1974; and Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1982 to 1988. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987. Judge Bork's nomination was denied by a Democrat controlled Senate following a hotly contested confirmation battle. He is a leading expert in constitutional law and history.
Thomas Hobbes on Punishments
Thomas Jefferson on Immigration
Thomas Jefferson on Islamic Terrorism
This is an excerpt from "Why Courage Matters" by Senator John McCain, a book published by Random House in 2004. Senator McCain served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. During the conflict he was captured and confined in a prisoner of war camp by the North Vietnamese. McCain has served in the United States Senate since 1987 and ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000; then again successfully in 2008. He is a leading, modern statesman and expert in foreign policy matters.
Will Durant on the Decay of Civilization