- Bastiat, Frédéric. The Law
- Bentham, Jeremy. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
- Berlin, Isaiah. Liberty
- Constant, Benjamin. Political Writings
- Friedman, Milton, Rose Friedman. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
- Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, John Jay. The Federalist Papers
- Hayek, Friedrich. The Road to Serfdom
- —. The Constitution of Liberty
- Hazlitt, Henry. The Foundations of Morality
- Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. The Common Law
- Humboldt, Wilhelm von. The Sphere of Duties of Government
- Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature
- Israel, Jonathan. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750
- —. Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670-1752
- —. Democratic Enlightenment: Philosophy, Revolution, and Human Rights, 1750-1790
- Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government
- Mill, James. The Principles of Toleration
- Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty
- —. On Social Freedom
- —. A Few Words on Non-Intervention
- Mises, Ludwig von. Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis
- Montesquieu, Charles de. The Spirit of the Laws
- Nozick, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- Paine, Thomas. Rights of Man
- Popper, Karl. The Open Society and its Enemies (2 volumes)
- Pufendorf, Samuel. On the Duty of Man and Citizen
- Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract
- Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments
- Spencer, Herbert. The Principles of Ethics
- Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America
- Wollstonecraft, Mary. Vindication of the Rights of Men
- —. Vindication of the Rights of Woman
These thinkers were influenced significantly by the work of earlier luminaries such as Laozi, Aristotle, Cicero, Erasmus, Thomas Hobbes, and Baruch Spinoza. However, it would be anachronistic to call these philosophers ‘Liberals,’ and I have therefore left out their works from this reading list. After all, liberalism was a nineteenth century political ideology, and the earlier thinkers do not match entirely with their latter counterparts. For example, Aristotle defended slavery and did not believe that liberty was the end goal of a state, but that it was eudaimonia. Nonetheless, the later thinkers distilled principal ideas relevant to their times from the classical thinkers and these are reflected in the Liberal canon.
Here is a YouTube video that explains the basic tenets of classical liberalism in slightly over seven minutes: Nigel Ashford on classical liberalism. He enumerates the ten basic principles as 1. Liberty as the primary political value, 2. Individualism, 3. Scepticism about power, 4. Rule of law, 5. Civil society, 6. Spontaneous order, 7. Free markets, 8. Toleration, 9. Peace, and 10. Limited government.
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