Liberty Fund, Inc. is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Carmel, Indiana , which promotes 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 The operating mandate of the Liberty Fund was set forth in an unpublished memo written by Goodrich "to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals".
15-534: Liberty Fund was founded by entrepreneur Pierre F. Goodrich in 1960. Goodrich, "one of the richest men in Indiana", was involved with coal mines, corn production, telecommunications, and securities. Goodrich was a member of the neoliberal or classically liberal Mont Pelerin Society , an international organization of academics, intellectuals, and business leaders who advocated free market economic policies. Goodrich
30-556: A broad range of topics and themes, including political theory and history, economics, literature, fine arts, science and technology, and law. Authors and thinkers discussed include William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Fredrick Douglass, and economists Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and James Buchanan. Past conference titles include “Freedom and Rebellion in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov , “Wisdom, Knowledge and
45-1000: A lawyer in Indianapolis , Indiana . He later took over his father's concerns, including the Indiana Telephone Company, Peoples Loan and Trust, and the Ayrshire Collieries Corporation. He served on the boards of trustees of the Great Books Foundation , the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra , the China Institute , the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists , the Foundation for Economic Education , and
60-474: A series of conferences led by economists James Buchanan , Gordon Tullock , and Geoffrey Brennan on Public Choice Theory . Professor Henry Manne spearheaded conferences from the late 1970s to the early 2000s that made a considerable contribution to the field of Law and Economics . Scholars William B. Allen , Forrest McDonald , Lance Banning , Gordon S. Wood and Jack P. Green have served as either directors or discussion leaders of dozens of conferences on
75-536: A small number of conferences in other regions of the world as well, including Asia, Australia, and North Africa. Conferences are organized primarily by scholars who work with Liberty Fund staff to establish a theme and select readings that explore certain aspects of liberty. As a result, thousands of individual conferences have been held in a myriad of disciplines, including economics, history, philosophy, religion, literature, law, and including, most recently, genomics and artificial intelligence. Individual conferences cover
90-820: The Institute for Humane Studies . He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society . He served on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, Wabash College, from 1940 to 1969. As trustee, he advocated the Great Books curriculum popularized by Mortimer J. Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins , which the school adopted in 1946. He also built the Goodrich Seminar Room in Wabash’s main library, dedicated to liberty. However, he subsequently grew weary of
105-701: The Good Life,” “Hobbes, Liberty, and the Rule of Law,” “Liberty and Power in the Mexican Revolution,” and “Civil Society in the Plague Year.” Scholars and professionals gather at these conferences, normally for three days, to engage in a conversation based upon preselected readings. The goal is for conferees to explore in depth the ideals, history, and institutions of a free society. Major contributions to specific intellectual disciplines have been
120-688: The Industrial Revolution, Hong Kong, and the Constitution of the United States. 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
135-863: The Liberty Fund was building a $ 22 million headquarters in Carmel, Indiana . Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other The foundation has published several books covering history, politics, philosophy, law, education, and economics. These include: Since its inception, Liberty Fund has hosted more than 6,000 small, Socratic conferences, holding these conferences primarily in North America, Europe, and Latin America. However, it has held
150-587: The early history of the American Republic. Liberty Fund’s publishing program began in 1971 with the publication of Education in a Free Society coauthored by Wabash College Professor Benjamin A. Rogge and Pierre F. Goodrich. (Rogge was a founding director of Liberty Fund in 1960). Since then, Liberty Fund has published more than 400 books exploring the idea of liberty across many disciplines, including economics, political thought, American history, law, and education. As part of Liberty Fund’s commitment to
165-569: The exchange of ideas, Liberty Fund keeps in print many titles that would otherwise be unavailable. Some of its most popular or influential publications include: Besides its main website, the Liberty Fund hosts four websites, including: Liberty Fund’s Intellectual Portrait Series contains in-depth conversations with more than thirty of the world’s leading academics in economics, political thought, law, and other disciplines. Liberty Fund also makes available detailed educational documentaries on Adam Smith and F.A. Hayek and features historical overviews of
SECTION 10
#1732780274586180-581: The expense of the public interest." Pierre F. Goodrich Pierre Frist Goodrich (1894–1973) was an American businessman and conservative philanthropist . Pierre Frist Goodrich was born on September 10, 1894, in Winchester, Indiana . His father was James P. Goodrich , a successful businessman and the Republican Governor of Indiana from 1917 to 1921. He attended Wabash College and Harvard Law School . He worked as
195-564: 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
210-659: The school's move towards an embrace of counterculture of the 1960s . In the 1950s, he established two foundations to promote liberty, the Winchester Foundation and Thirty Five Twenty. In 1960, he founded the Liberty Fund , a free-market think tank headquartered in Indianapolis. He wrote Liberty Fund Basic Memorandum , a 129-page booklet with instructions on how to run the think tank. In 1973, LibertyPress published Goodrich's essay "Education in
225-413: Was also an acolyte of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises . Historian Donald T. Critchlow notes that Liberty Fund was one of the endowed conservative foundations which laid the way for the election of U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1980. In 1997 it received an $ 80 million donation from Goodrich's wife, Enid, increasing its assets to over $ 300 million. In November 2015, it was announced that
#585414