Liberty Fund
Liberty Fund, Inc. is a nonprofit foundation[2] headquartered in Carmel, Indiana which promulgates the libertarian views of its founder, Pierre F. Goodrich through publishing, conferences, and educational resources. The operating mandate of the Liberty Fund was set forth in an unpublished memo written by Goodrich "to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals".[3][4][5][2]
Founded | 1960 |
---|---|
Founder | Pierre F. Goodrich |
Purpose | Educational |
Location |
|
Method | Publishing, conferences |
Website | libertyfund |
History
Liberty Fund was founded by Pierre F. Goodrich in 1960. In 1997 it received an $80 million donation from Goodrich's wife, Enid, increasing its assets to over $300 million.[5][6]
In November 2015, it was announced that the Liberty Fund was building a $22 million headquarters in Carmel, Indiana.[7][8]
Liberty Fund has been cited by historian Donald T. Critchlow as one of the endowed conservative foundations which laid the way for the election of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1980.[9]
Projects
The foundation has published several books covering history, politics, philosophy, law, education, and economics. These include:
- Liberty Fund's Natural Law and Enlightenment Series
- Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (Historical-Critical Edition) ISBN 9780865978409[10][11]
- The Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Glasgow Edition) ISBN 9780865973695
- David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 2010. ISBN 9780865979659[11]
- The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo (Edited by Piero Sraffa and Maurice Dobb, 2005) ISBN 9780865979765
Organizations
- The Library of Economics and Liberty (EconLib) – publishes the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (CEE).[12][13][14] Articles are written by economists from different schools of thought, and include four Nobel laureates in economics as authors in the 2nd edition (2008).[15][16] It also includes short biographies of noted economists and a comprehensive index.[17] The original version of the CEE was first published in 1993 as the Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics with economist David R. Henderson as the editor.[18] Notable contributors to the first edition included Nobel Prize laureates Gary Becker, Paul Krugman, Thomas Schelling, George Stigler, and James Tobin.[19]
- Law & Liberty – Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and politics and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This magazine brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to examining the first principles of a free society as they appear in law, history, political thought, and other aspects of culture.
Websites
Besides its main website, the Liberty Fund also sponsors the following websites:[20]
- The Online Library of Liberty
- Library of Economics and Liberty
- Law & Liberty
- Adam Smith Works
Criticism
In his book The Assault on Reason, former U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore wrote that between 2002 and 2004, 97% of the attendees at Liberty Fund training seminars for judges were Republican administration appointees. Gore suggests that such conferences and seminars are one of the reasons that judges who regularly attend such conferences "are generally responsible for writing the most radical pro-corporate, antienvironmental, and activist decisions". Referring to what he calls the "Big Three"—the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, George Mason University's Law & Economics Center, and the Liberty Fund—Gore adds, "These groups are not providing unbiased judicial education. They are giving multithousand-dollar vacations to federal judges to promote their radical right-wing agenda at the expense of the public interest."[21]
See also
References
- The Ama-gi is interpreted by the Liberty Fund to be the earliest-known written appearance of the word "freedom", or "liberty", taken from a clay document written about 2300 BCE in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash. See: Logo Archived 2016-06-12 at the Wayback Machine
- Simon, Scott (March 28, 2009). "Sarah Palin as Dorothy? We're Not in Kansas". Weekend Edition – Saturday. NPR. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
- Rojc, Philip (July 27, 2016). "Rightward, Ho! Ten Top Funders Behind the Surging Libertarian Movement". Inside Philanthropy. Archived from the original on September 4, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- Morgan N. Knull, Goodrich, Pierre, Archived 2018-10-22 at the Wayback Machine, First Principles, 09/23/11.
- Robert T. Grimm (ed.), Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, pp. 125–128
- "Gift pulls Liberty out of shadows". Indianapolis Business Journal. IBJ Corporation. June 30, 1997. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
Because the conferences are scattered across the globe and because they attract only elite thinkers, the fund attracts little attention in Indianapolis outside its Allison Pointe offices.
- "Liberty Fund building $22M headquarters in Carmel". Indy Star. Archived from the original on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- "Liberty Fund". catalog.libertyfund.org. Archived from the original on 2017-03-26. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
- Critchlow, Donald. "Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism". New York Times. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- "Review: Russ Roberts' 'How Adam Smith Can Save Your Life'". 26 October 2014. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
- "Economics 101-03: History of Economic Thought Spring 2015" (PDF). California State University, Sacramento Department of Economics. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- "The Case Against Sugar: Gary Taubes On EconTalk". The Foundation for Economic Education. 13 February 2017.
- "Liberty Fund Links". 14 December 2016. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
- LCCN 2007-15993; OCLC 237794267, 750248783, 730302176; ISBN 978-0865976658, 978-0865976665
- "The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (Brief Article) (Book Review)". Reference & Research Book News. Portland, OR: Book News, Inc. May 1, 2008. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
- [http://www.econlib.org/library/CEEAuthors.html CEE Authors]
Laureates include: James Tobin, George Stigler, Gary Becker and Thomas J. Sargent. - "The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. (Brief article) (Book review)". Internet Bookwatch. Midwest Book Review. December 1, 2007. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
- LCCN 92-50535
- "Browse the CEE [1st ed., 1998] by Author". Library of Economics and Liberty. Liberty Fund. Archived from the original on 2017-05-28. Retrieved 2017-06-23.
- "About Liberty Fund". Liberty Fund. April 10, 2014. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- Gore, Al (2007). The Assault on Reason. Penguin Press. p. 234. ISBN 978-1594201226.
Liberty Fund .
External links
- Official website
- EDIRC listing (provided by RePEc)