Two Treatises of Government

Reflections on the Revolution in France and Rights of Man

By: Wendy McElroy, Pat Childs, George H. Smith, Edmund Burke & Thomas Paine
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast, Robert Wynne, Jonathan Lutz, Don Jones, Travis Hardison & Ralph Childs
Length: 2 hours 51 minutes
Abridged: No

Reflections on the Revolution in France is a slashing attack on the French Revolution by one of Britain’s most famous statesmen. Liberty and social order, Burke argues, are maintained by the traditional rights and duties embedded in custom and law. And when these traditions are overthrown in revolutions, society is threatened with chaos,... Read more »

The Wealth of Nations, Part 2

By: Adam Smith, George H. Smith, Pat Childs & Sharon Weil
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast & Ralph Childs
Length: 2 hours 34 minutes
Abridged: No

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is one of the most important and influential works ever published on economic theory. A masterpiece of the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment, it develops a theory of social order arising from the unintended consequences of self-interested behavior. This self-regulating system... Read more »

The Federalist Papers

By: George H. Smith, Wendy McElroy & Pat Childs
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, Pat Childs, Robert Wynne, Don Jones, Travis Hardison, Michael Edwards, Michael Montgomery & a supporting cast
Length: 2 hours 44 minutes
Abridged: No

The US Constitution was approved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. It was to become law only if it was ratified by nine of the thirteen states. New York was a key state, but it contained strong forces opposing the Constitution. A series of eighty-five letters appeared in New York City newspapers between October 1787 and... Read more »

Communist Manifesto and Social Contract

By: Ralph Raico, Wendy McElroy, Pat Childs & Sharon Weil
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast, E. R. Davies, Travis Hardison, John Lutz, Don Jones & Ralph Childs
Length: 2 hours 54 minutes
Abridged: No

This presentation discusses two political documents that have changed history: Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract.

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx argues that history flows inevitably toward a social revolution, which will result in a society without economic classes, private property, or a state. This... Read more »

The Prince & Discourse on Voluntary Servitude

By: George Smith, Wendy McElroy, Pat Childs, Étienne de La Boétie, Niccolò Machiavelli & George H. Smith
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast, Don Jones, Jonathan Lutz, Travis Hardison, Ralph Childs & E. R. Davies
Length: 2 hours 52 minutes
Abridged: No

Machiavelli wrote The Prince for his ruler as a guide for gaining and keeping power. Central themes of his essay are the relation between politics and ethics, what the best form of government consists of; the importance of the Church, and the growth of Italy as a nation-state. The word “Machiavellian” often suggests sinister motives, but some... Read more »

Democracy in America

By: Alexis de Tocqueville, Ralph Raico, Wendy McElroy & Pat Childs
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast, Paul Meier, Travis Hardison, Ralph Childs, Dan Church & Jean le Blanc
Length: 2 hours 47 minutes
Abridged: No

Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat, captured the essence of nineteenth-century America in his penetrating work, Democracy in America. The democratic concept of equality was emerging as a political reality in America, and it threatened the aristocracy of Europe; it produced a society of individualists hungry for self improvement. In... Read more »

Leviathan

By: George H. Smith, Pat Childs & Thomas Hobbes
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast, Pat Childs, Sam Mercurio, Paul Meier, Travis Hardison & Ralph Childs
Length: 1 hour 51 minutes
Abridged: No

Leviathan is a vigorous defense of a strong central government that was originally published in 1651, just after the English wars of 1642-49. This presentation explores the social and political turmoil during which Leviathan was written, including an examination of the radical political philosophies spawned by opposition to Stuart monarchy in... Read more »

Two Treatises of Government

By: John Locke, Wendy McElroy, George H. Smith & George Smith
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast & Ralph Childs
Length: 2 hours 42 minutes
Abridged: No

Two Treatises of Government is the most famous and influential defense of limited government ever published. Written during a period of increasing opposition to the restored English monarchy, this work was published anonymously in 1689. It is a classic account of natural rights, social contract, government by consent, and the right of... Read more »

The Wealth of Nations

By: Adam Smith, Pat Childs, Sharon Weil & George H. Smith
Narrated by: Ralph Childs, Craig Deitschmann & a supporting cast
Length: 5 hours 7 minutes
Abridged: No

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is one of the most important and influential works ever published on economic theory and is the foundation of classical economics. In it, Adam Smith stresses the importance of the division of labor to economic progress. He criticizes the arguments for economic planning and offers a... Read more »

Common Sense and The Declaration of Independence

By: George Smith, Thomas Paine, Pat Childs, Thomas Jefferson & George H. Smith
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, Bill Middleton & Ralph Childs
Length: 2 hours 30 minutes
Abridged: No

Common Sense examines how Americans defended the right to resist unjust laws and how this right of resistance was transformed into a right of revolution. It examines Thomas Paine’s views on the difference between society and government, his defense of republican government, his total rejection of hereditary monarchy, and his belief that... Read more »

The Wealth of Nations, Part 1

By: Adam Smith, George H. Smith, Pat Childs & Sharon Weil
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann, a supporting cast & Ralph Childs
Length: 2 hours 33 minutes
Abridged: No

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is the foundation of classical economics, and it has influenced a broad range of thinkers. In it, Adam Smith stresses the importance of the division of labor to economic progress. He criticizes the arguments for economic planning and offers a detailed theoretical and historical case... Read more »

On Liberty and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

By: Wendy McElroy, David Gordon, George H. Smith, Pat Childs, Sharon Weil, Mary Wollstonecraft & John Stuart Mill
Narrated by: Pat Childs, Craig Deitschmann, Jonathan Lutz, Don Jones, Ruth Sweet, Ralph Childs, Dara Modglin & a supporting cast
Length: 2 hours 40 minutes
Abridged: No

This presentation examines two eloquent arguments for human liberty: John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

In On Liberty, the great philosopher John Stuart Mill rigorously defends individual liberty based on the concept of utilitarianism, or “the greatest happiness for the greatest number.”... Read more »

Civil Disobedience and The Liberator

By: George H. Smith, Wendy McElroy, Pat Childs, Sharon Weil, Henry David Thoreau & William Lloyd Garrison
Narrated by: Craig Deitschmann & Ralph Childs
Length: 2 hours 7 minutes
Abridged: No

Civil Disobedience discusses Thoreau’s arguments for civil disobedience: the deliberate violation of laws for reasons of conscience. Thoreau’s concept is based on the belief that no law should command blind obedience and that non-cooperation with unjust laws is both morally correct and socially beneficial.

The Liberator was a leading voice for... Read more »