{"id":228,"date":"2015-06-22T16:28:05","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T16:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/?p=228"},"modified":"2026-06-27T14:15:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T04:15:34","slug":"the-classical-liberal-tradition-a-history-of-ideas-and-movements-over-400-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/the-classical-liberal-tradition-a-history-of-ideas-and-movements-over-400-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The Classical Liberal Tradition &#8211; A History of Ideas and Movements over 400 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>IHS Advanced Studies Summer Seminar, \u201cLiberty &amp; Scholarship: Challenges and Critiques\u201d Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA.<\/p>\n<p>Date: 13-19 June, 2015<\/p>\n<p>Lectures on:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>&#8220;The Classical Liberal Tradition &#8211; A History of Ideas and Movements over 400 Years&#8221;<\/strong> &#8211; two lectures<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Images of Liberty and Power: State Propaganda and its Subversion&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist and Classical Liberal&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Lecture 1. \u201cThe Classical Liberal Tradition: Theory and History (A Two-Part Lecture)\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/KeyIdeasClassicalLiberalism4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/KeyIdeasClassicalLiberalism4.jpg\" alt=\"KeyIdeasClassicalLiberalism4\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-229\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Lecture material:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/liberty\/Lectures\/2015\/IHS\/1-2-HistoryCL\/IHS2015-ClassicalLiberalTradition.pdf\">PDF of overheads 12 MB<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/liberty\/Lectures\/2015\/IHS\/1-2-HistoryCL\/Lecture\/Lecture1-12KeyConcepts.html\">HTML version<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Outline:<\/p>\n<p>There are some inter-related threads I wish to explore on the Classical Liberal Tradition (CLT):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an examination of the tradition of political and economic thought which came to be known as &#8220;classical liberalism&#8221; (in the 19th and early 20th centuries) or &#8220;libertarianism&#8221; (in the second half of the 20th century);\n<ul>\n<li>what these Classical Liberals believed in (my Concept Map of CL and &#8220;12 Key Concepts&#8221;) and <\/li>\n<li>what they opposed <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>a brief survey of the history of the Classical Liberal Tradition (CLT) over the past 400 years (1640-2015), with an emphasis on 4 particular historical periods:\n<ul>\n<li>1640s: the English Civil War\/Revolution<\/li>\n<li>1750-1790: the American and French Revolutions<\/li>\n<li>the long liberal 19th century 1815-1914 <\/li>\n<li>the post-WW2 liberal renaissance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>why was there a greater flourishing of CL then?\n<ul>\n<li>emergence of new ideas about liberty?<\/li>\n<li>greater willingness to act on these ideas in order to change society<\/li>\n<li>reaction to increases in State Power or crises in the State (war and debt)? <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>these reactions were of two different kind:\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;conservative&#8221; CL: resisting state imposed changes on traditional religious, social, political, economic practices<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;revolutionary&#8221; CL: seeing the possibilities of bringing freedom to those who have never enjoyed it before, women, slaves, serfs, women; or moving society into new, radical pro-freedom direction which has never existed before (free trade, laissez-faire, privatising public goods)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>a discussion of the theory and history of the spread of Classical Liberal ideas and what this means for developing a better strategy for the future (Discussion Group)\n<ul>\n<li>ideas and interests (Mises)<\/li>\n<li>the production, dissemination and consumption of ideas: the role of producers, investors, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and consumers of ideas<\/li>\n<li>the nature and speed of ideological change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IHS Advanced Studies Summer Seminar, \u201cLiberty &amp; Scholarship: Challenges and Critiques\u201d Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA. Date: 13-19 June, 2015 Lectures on: &#8220;The Classical Liberal Tradition &#8211; A History of Ideas and Movements over 400 Years&#8221; &#8211; two lectures &#8220;Images of Liberty and Power: State Propaganda and its Subversion&#8221; &#8220;Competing Visions of the Future: Socialist &#8230; <a title=\"The Classical Liberal Tradition &#8211; A History of Ideas and Movements over 400 Years\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/the-classical-liberal-tradition-a-history-of-ideas-and-movements-over-400-years\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Classical Liberal Tradition &#8211; A History of Ideas and Movements over 400 Years\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77,90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tradition","category-talks"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204799,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/204799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidmhart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}