Liberty and Equality

About this Collection

John Stuart Mill has a controversial place in the classical liberal tradition. He shocked many conservatives with his support for womens suffrage in The Subjection of Women (1869) and seemed to justify considerable state intervention in the economy in his Principles of Political Economy (1848). One of his most influential books, On Liberty (1859), prompted a critique by Stephens who argued that Mills idea of liberty and equality undermined the older liberal notions of “ordered liberty” and “equality under law”.

Key People

OLL Editor

Marcos Falcone

Richard Gunderman

G Patrick Lynch

John Stuart Mill

Caren S. Oberg

Ann P. Robson

Claudia Williamson Kramer

Renee Wilmeth

Titles & Essays

Group by Category

LIBERTY MATTERS

A Better Definition of Justice

By: Darcy Nikol Bryan October 25, 2022

LIBERTY MATTERS

Does Systemic Racism Exist in K-12?

By: Harold A. Black October 13, 2022

LIBERTY MATTERS

Inequities in U.S. Healthcare

By: Darcy Nikol Bryan October 11, 2022

LIBERTY MATTERS

Models Misbehaving and the Smothering of Liberty Effects

By: John Sibley Butler November 1, 2022

LIBERTY MATTERS

Systemic Race Theory and Liberty: Toward an Understanding

By: John Sibley Butler October 18, 2022

LIBERTY MATTERS

Systemic Racism: Fact or Fiction: Comments on Bryan, Butler and Graboyes

By: Harold A. Black October 27, 2022

LIBERTY MATTERS

Systemic Racism: Four Intersecting Perspectives

By: Robert F. Graboyes October 20, 2022

LIBERTY MATTERS

Tempering Systemic Racism in Healthcare

By: Robert F. Graboyes October 6, 2022

THE READING ROOM

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

By: OLL Editor January 16, 2023

We at the Online Library of Liberty think that there are few better things one could do today than to read or listen to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (LF ed.)

James Fitzjames Stephen (author)

The Liberty Fund edition of this work. Impugning John Stuart Mill’s famous treatise, On Liberty, Stephen criticized Mill for turning abstract doctrines of the French Revolution into “the creed of a religion.” Only the constraints of…

On Liberty and The Subjection of Women (1879 ed.)

John Stuart Mill (author)

Mill had been somewhat coy about publishing The Subjection of Women during his lifetime because he feared the condemnation of his peers for daring to apply the general notions of individual liberty which he had clearly spelled out in…

THE READING ROOM

Our Thanksgiving Menu at the Reading Room

By: Sarah Skwire November 24, 2021

Pull up a chair and feast on this menu of Thanksgiving reading from the OLL!

LIBERTY MATTERS

Remembering Sumner the Political Economist. Part 1: The Poison of Paper Money

By: David M. Hart July 19, 2017

THE READING ROOM

Social Coercion in Libertopia

By: Bill Glod April 5, 2024

James moves to the small town of Libertopia, where property rights are respected with perfect consistency. There is no force or fraud. Contracts are still normally in writing but handshakes uphold deals reliably. One can leave one’s…

The Subjection of Women (1878 ed.)

John Stuart Mill (author)

Mill took up the cause of women’s rights in the face of much opposition from his colleagues in Parliament. In addition to his parliamentary speeches on the matter his most extended defense of the right of women to own property and to…

LIBERTY MATTERS

Systemic Racism in Crime: Do Blacks Commit More Crimes Than Whites?

By: Claudia Williamson Kramer February 13, 2024

LIBERTY MATTERS

Systemic Racism in Education and Healthcare (October 2022)

Ramon P. DeGennaro (contributor)

At best, healthcare and education in the United States are suboptimal. At worst, they are a national disgrace. Any disagreements over how best to improve each institution concern more narrowly focused issues, such as...

LIBERTY MATTERS

Systemic Racism in Education and Healthcare (October 2022)

By: Ramon P. DeGennaro October 4, 2022

18thC Middle Class Radicalism: A Bibliographical Essay by Isaac Kramnick