Liberty Fund
Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American libertarian-leaning nonprofit foundation headquartered in Indianapolis, founded by 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publishing, conferences, and educational resources, the operating mandate of the Liberty Fund was set forth in an unpublished memo written by Goodrich "to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals".[2][3][4][5]
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.[4][6]
In November 2015, it was announced that the Liberty Fund was building a $22 million headquarters in Carmel, Indiana.[7][8]
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[9][10]
- The Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Glasgow Edition) ISBN 9780865973695
- David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 2010. ISBN 9780865979659[10]
- 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).[11][12][13] Articles are written by economists from different schools of thought, and include four Nobel laureates in economics as authors in the 2nd edition (2008).[14][15] It also includes short biographies of noted economists and a comprehensive index.[16] 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.[17] Notable contributors to the first edition included Nobel Prize laureates Gary Becker, Paul Krugman, Thomas Schelling, George Stigler, and James Tobin.[18]
Websites
Besides its main website, the Liberty Fund also sponsors the following websites:[19]
- The Online Library of Liberty
- Library of Economics and Liberty
- Online Library of Law & Liberty
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."[20]
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.[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
- Rojc, Philip (July 27, 2016). "Rightward, Ho! Ten Top Funders Behind the Surging Libertarian Movement". Inside Philanthropy. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- Morgan N. Knull, Goodrich, Pierre, First Principles, 09/23/11
- Robert T. Grimm (ed.), Notable American Philanthropists: Biographies of Giving and Volunteering, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, pp. 125–28
- Simon, Scott (March 28, 2009). "Sarah Palin as Dorothy? We're Not in Kansas". Weekend Edition – Saturday. NPR. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
- "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. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- "Liberty Fund". catalog.libertyfund.org.
- "Review: Russ Roberts' 'How Adam Smith Can Save Your Life'". 26 October 2014.
- "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.
- LCCN 2007-15993; OCLC 237794267, 750248783, 730302176; ISBN 978-0865976658, 0865976651, 978-0865976665, 086597666X
- "The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (Brief Article) (Book Review)". Reference & Research Book News. Portland, OR: Book News, Inc. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . May 1, 2008. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
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- [http://www.econlib.org/library/CEEAuthors.html CEE Authors]
Laureates include: James Tobin, George Stigler, Gary Becker and Thomas J. Sargent.
- [http://www.econlib.org/library/CEEAuthors.html CEE Authors]
- "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 – via HighBeam Research.
- LCCN 92-50535
- "Browse the CEE [1st edition, 1998] by Author". Library of Economics and Liberty. Liberty Fund.
- "About Liberty Fund". Liberty Fund. April 10, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- Gore, Al (2007). The Assault on Reason. Penguin Press. p. 234. ISBN 978-1-59420-122-6.
Liberty Fund .
- Critchlow, Donald. "Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism". New York Times. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
External links
- Official website
- EDIRC listing (provided by RePEc)