Hillsdale College Freedom Library

Hillsdale College Freedom Library
Hillsdale College
Freedom Library
The mission of Hillsdale College, as set forth in our Articles of Association, is to offer “sound learning” of the kind needed to preserve “the inestimable blessings . . .  of civil and religious liberty.” To promote and defend this mission, Hillsdale hosts lecture programs on campus and around the country. The Freedom Library is an online video collection of lectures delivered at these programs.
Featured Lectures
Featured
The Michael E. Mann Defamation Case and the Politicization of American Justice
Mark Steyn
Featured
Christianity in a Post-Liberal World
John Daniel Davidson
CCA IV: 1776
March 1-4, 2026
The Story of Our Declaration of Independence
Matthew Spalding
Lexington and Concord: The First Battles of the Revolution
Walter R. Borneman
The Economics of the Revolution
John Steele Gordon
Keys to Victory in the Revolution
Mark Edward Lender
Sermons of the Revolutionary Era
Kevin Slack
1619 and 1776
Gordon S. Wood
National Leadership Seminar — Amelia Island, Florida
February 18-19, 2026
Working at CNN
Scott Jennings
The James Comey Case
Catherine Herridge
Defending the American Way of Life
Larry P. Arnn
Who Is Funding Antifa?
Seamus Bruner
CCA III: Journalism and American Democracy
February 1–4, 2026
The Importance and Meaning of a Free Press
Thomas G. West
William F. Buckley, Jr. and Conservative Journalism
Charles R. Kesler
The Decline of Trust in Legacy Media
John Kass
The 2WAY Model
Mark Halperin
Make America Laugh Again: Politically Incorrect Cartoons
A.F. Branco
The Rise of the New Media
Amber Duke
CCA II: U.S Economic Policy: Great Society to the Present
November 2-5, 2025
The Goals and Failures of the Great Society
Amity Shlaes
The Carter Years: Deregulation, Stagflation, and Malaise
Steven F. Hayward
Reaganomics
Stephen Moore
Clinton, the Bushes, and the Rise of Globalism
Kevin Roberts
The Economics of Obamacare
Casey Mulligan
MAGA Economics
James Rickards
Free Market Forum 2025
October 16-17, 2025
The Mamdani Phenomenon in NYC
James Freeman
Energy
Panel
The Federal Reserve
Panel
DOGE and the Budget
Panel
Teaching Economics
Ken Elzinga
The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism
Sean McMeekin
Constitution Day Celebration 2025
September 18-19, 2025
Sovereignty and the Nation State
Nigel Farage
DOGE and the Constitution
Panel
The Conservative Legal Movement
Panel
No Year Zero: The American Founding and the Continuity of Civilization
Daniel J. Mahoney
CCA I: Issues in International Relations
September 7-10, 2025
Foreign Policy and the Constitution
Casey Wheatland
The U.S. and the U.K.: The Standing of the Special Relationship
Liz Truss
How to Think About U.S. Foreign Aid
Max Primorac
Russian-Western European Relations
Christopher Caldwell
China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Brian T. Kennedy
Critical Misunderstandings of the Middle East
Martin Kramer
The Vietnam War
April 30, 2025
The American Withdrawal
James Wilbanks
The Fall of Saigon
George J. Veith
The War Over the Vietnam War
Mark Moyar
Truth in the Fiction of the Vietnam War
John Del Vecchio
Legacies of Vietnam
Panel
National Leadership Seminar — Kansas City, Missouri
April 24-25, 2025
MAGA and the Fight for America
Stephen K. Bannon
Was JD Vance Right About Europe?
Christopher Caldwell
Defending the American Way of Life
Larry P. Arnn
Top Economic and Financial Challenges
David Malpass
The Role of a Free Press and the Irresponsibility of the Legacy Media
Sean Davis
CCA IV: History on Film
March 2-6, 2025
The Ronald Reagan I Knew
Kenneth L. Khachigian
NASA and the Movies
Homer Hickam
World War II on Film
Victor Davis Hanson
Character in the Olympics Then and Now
Titus Techera
National Leadership Seminar — Phoenix, Arizona
February 18-19, 2025
Hitting the Ground Running: The Trump Transition and Early Priorities
Charlie Kirk
Israel and Civilization
Josh Hammer
Defending the American Way of Life
Larry P. Arnn
The Rise of Anti-White Racism
Jeremy Carl
The Problem of Big Pharma
Sharyl Attkisson
CCA III: Artificial Intelligence
February 2-5, 2025
Transhumanism and AI
Aaron Kheriaty
AI and the Future Battlefield
Erik D. Prince
AI as a Means of Totalitarian Control in China
Bill Gertz
Human Nature vs. Utopian Technocracy
Mattias Desmet
AI as a Tool for Manipulating Public Opinion
Robert Epstein
Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do
Erik J. Larson
CCA II: Economic Issues and Controversies
November 10-13, 2024
What Would an Audit of the Fed Show?
Nicolas Cachanosky
The American Economy: Looking Ahead
Charles V. Payne
The Danger of Central Bank Digital Currencies
Catherine Austin Fitts
The American Dollar and the Eurodollar
Jeffrey P. Snider
Space Mining
Joel C. Sercel
The Economics and Future of Electric Vehicles
Mark P. Mills
Free Market Forum 2024
October 24-26, 2024
Economics and the 2024 Election
Andy Puzder
Immigration
Panel
Economic Liberty and Constitutional Law
Panel
Economics and the Family
Panel
Hong Kong, Freedom, and Jimmy Lai
Mark Simon
CCA I: Christianity in America
September 29–October 2, 2024
The Theological-Political Problem and the American Founding
Glenn Ellmers
Jonathan Edwards and Christianity in Colonial America
George M. Marsden
Christianity and the American Political Tradition
Daniel L. Dreisbach
The Second Great Awakening
Thomas S. Kidd
The Social Gospel Movement and the Rise of Secularism
Darryl G. Hart
Christianity in a Post-Liberal World
John Daniel Davidson
Constitution Day Celebration 2024
September 18-19, 2024
The Michael E. Mann Defamation Case and the Politicization of American Justice
Mark Steyn
Roundtable on Masters of Corruption:
How the Federal Bureaucracy Sabotaged the Trump Presidency
by Mark Moyar
Panel
Lawfare
Panel
National Leadership Seminar — Bellevue, Washington
April 17-18, 2024
Wokeness in Sports
Clay Travis
National Conservatism and Freedom Conservatism
John Fonte
Education and Politics
Larry P. Arnn
Truth and Free Speech
Chaya Raichik
Do We Need a Digital Rights Amendment?
James Poulos
CCA IV: The American Musical
March 3-7, 2024
The History and Significance of American Musicals
Ken Bloom
Rodgers and Hammerstein and the Golden Age of the American Musical
John Steele Gordon
Meredith Willson and
The Music Man
Mark Cabaniss
American Musicals and the Great American Songbook
Mark Steyn
National Leadership Seminar — Naples, Florida
February 14-15, 2024
What to Do About the DOJ
Newt Gingrich
Trans Madness: The Way Out
Miriam Grossman
Education and Politics
Larry P. Arnn
Post-Cold War NATO: Purpose and Problems
Doug Bandow
Race, Merit, Excellence, and America’s Future
Heather Mac Donald
CCA III: The Art of Biography
February 4-7, 2024
Plutarch and the Art of Biography
Roger Kimball
Mozart’s Life and Music
Jan Swafford
The Life and Imagination of Ray Bradbury
Jonathan R. Eller
The Character and Significance of Grover Cleveland
Troy Senik
Ted Williams and the Cloudbuster Nine
Anne R. Keene
The Art of Autobiography
Joseph Epstein
Campus Lectures
Challenges to Western Civilization: A Hungarian View
János Csák
The Current Border Policy and What it Means for America
Todd Bensman
The Great COVID Cover-Up
Rand Paul
American Injustice
Julie Kelly
The Business of Transgenderism
Christopher F. Rufo
The Twitter Files
John Daniel Davidson
American Christmas, American New Year
Christopher Flannery
Big Pharma, Big Tech, and Synthetic Sex Identities
Jennifer Bilek
The Rise of Wokeness and the Decline of Readiness in the Military
Thomas W. Spoehr
Inflation in America: Causes and History
John Steele Gordon
Hillsdale College Academy for Freedom and Science Launch
Panel
The January 6 Insurrection Hoax
Roger Kimball
Controlling Words, Controlling Minds
Michael J. Knowles
Mike Pompeo Speech at Hillsdale College
Mike Pompeo
CCA II: Great Economists
November 5-8, 2023
The Genius of Adam Smith
Mark Skousen
Hayek and
The Road to Serfdom
Bruce Caldwell
Marx and the Continuing Influence of Socialism
Benjamin Powell
The Relevance of Von Mises Today
Jeffrey A. Tucker
James Buchanan and Public Choice
Randall Holcombe
Friedman and Samuelson
Nicholas Wapshott
Free Market Forum 2023
October 12-13, 2023
How to Restore American Manufacturing
David P. Goldman
The U.S. Dollar in Turmoil
Panel
Health Care: Ideas for Reform
Panel
Do We Have a Constitution Anymore?
Panel
Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing
Marian L. Tupy
CCA I: U.S. Intelligence: History and Controversies
October 1-4, 2023
Intelligence in the Revolutionary War
Alexander Rose
Wild Bill Donovan, the OSS, and the Early CIA
Patrick K. O'Donnell
The Art of Disguise
Jonna Mendez
Cold War Espionage: The Golitsyn–Nosenko Controversy
Edward Jay Epstein
The Importance of Good Intelligence
Fred Fleitz
The Rise and Fall of the CIA
Sam Faddis
Constitution Day Celebration 2023
September 13-14, 2023
Constitutionalism: Lessons from Canada
Conrad Black
Do We Have a Constitution Anymore?
Panel
Roundtable on
Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future
by Patrick J. Deneen
Panel
The Contemporary Relevance of Watergate
Nathan Pinkoski
National Leadership Seminar — Irving, Texas
April 24-25, 2023
The Climate Change Panic: Myths and Costs
Bjorn Lomborg
What Is a Woman?
Matt Walsh
Preserving Our Country
Larry P. Arnn
The Corruption of the FBI
Robert Barnes
American Elites and China
Peter Schweizer
CCA IV: Big Pharma
March 5-8, 2023
Health Care American Style
John Abramson
Anthony Fauci and the Public Health Establishment
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Big Pharma and Big Government
Jordan Schachtel
What’s in the Pfizer Documents?
Naomi Wolf
Big Pharma and the Chinese Communist Party
Brian T. Kennedy
Big Pharma and the Opioid Epidemic
Gerald Posner
National Leadership Seminar — Indian Wells, California
February 21-22, 2023
The 2020 Election and Future Elections
Dinesh D’Souza
The Conservative Split Over “Drag Queen Story Hour”
Sohrab Ahmari
Preserving Our Country
Larry P. Arnn
Politics and the Media
Miranda Devine
The Biden Economy
Andy Puzder
CCA III: Classical Greece and Rome
February 5-8, 2023
Pericles and Athenian Democracy
David West
The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic
Barry Strauss
Cicero and Stoicism
Walter Nicgorski
Xenophon’s Socrates
Peter Ahrensdorf
The Importance of Virgil
Anthony Esolen
The Importance of Homer
Joshua Katz
CCA II: Parallel Economies
November 13-16, 2022
The Rise of Corporate Fascism
Michael Rectenwald
After FOX News: The Need for Parallel News Sources
John Solomon
Crypto as Parallel Currency?
William J. Luther
Dependence on Big Tech as a Threat to Freedom
Walter Kirn
Local Food as Parallel Agriculture
Joel Salatin
Refounding American Institutions
Matthew J. Peterson
Free Market Forum 2022
October 27-28, 2022
Globalism and Freedom
Roger Kimball
The Biden Economy
Panel
Academic Freedom
Panel
China and Economic Warfare
Panel
The Cloud Revolution: Looking Ahead
Mark P. Mills
CCA I: Russia
October 2-5, 2022
Russia from 1696-1917: An Overview
Sean McMeekin
Russia from 1917-1991: An Overview
Stephen Kotkin
Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: Lessons from the Russian Classics
Gary Saul Morson
Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff: Creating a Russian Identity in Music
Hyperion Knight
Russia Under Putin
Michael Millerman
Russia and American Foreign Policy Today
Christopher Caldwell
Constitution Day Celebration 2022
September 15-16, 2022
Dobbs v. Jackson
: Legal Arguments and
Surrounding Controversy
Scott G. Stewart
The Ukraine War and the Purpose of American Foreign Policy
Panel
What Does American Conservatism Exist to Conserve?
Panel
The Politicization of the Justice Department
Harmeet Dhillon
National Leadership Seminar — Colorado Springs, Colorado
April 20-21, 2022
American Marxism
Mark Levin
Freedom, Science, and COVID
Jay Bhattacharya
Preserving Our Country
Larry P. Arnn
The Biden Economy
Kim Strassel
CCA IV: Film Noir
March 6-10, 2022
Film Noir: An Overview History
R. Barton Palmer
Cinematography of Noir
Alain Silver
Elements of Classic Noir
Eddie Muller
Beauty, Tragedy, Law, and Advertising
Titus Techera
National Leadership Seminar — Naples, Florida
February 23-24, 2022
Challenges to American Liberty
Ron DeSantis
The Significance of Thomas Sowell
Jason Riley
Preserving Our Country
Larry P. Arnn
Is Polling Reliable Anymore?
Richard Baris
The Idea Pathogens Destroying Logic, Science, Reason, and Common Sense
Gad Saad
CCA III: The Inklings
January 30-February 2, 2022
Who Are the Inklings?
Bradley J. Birzer
C.S. Lewis’s
The Abolition of Man
Michael Ward
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Scholarship
Michael Drout
Themes of Lewis’s Fiction
Jason Lepojärvi
Tolkien and the Christian Imagination
Holly Ordway
CCA II: The Great Reset?
November 7-10, 2021
What Is the Great Reset?
Michael Rectenwald
Woke Capitalism vs. Profit
Vivek Ramaswamy
Cashless Society
James Rickards
Is ‘Environmental Justice’ Good for the Environment?
Mark P. Mills
The Great Reset from China’s Perspective
David P. Goldman
The Alternative to the Great Reset
Brian Wesbury
Free Market Forum 2021
October 28-30, 2021
The State of the U.S. Economy
Charles V. Payne
Woke Capitalism
Panel
American Populism
Panel
Blockchain
Panel
U.S. Covid Response in Historic Context
Christopher Caldwell
Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Fellows Lecture Series
Truth, Science, and the Coronavirus
Alex Berenson
You Can’t Argue with the Righteous: Is Political Debate a Thing of the Past?
Barton Swaim
Issues Driving the 2020 Election
Salena Zito
Media Coverage of Police Shootings from Ferguson On
Christopher Bedford
CCA I: Critical American Elections
September 19-22, 2021
Bullets or Ballots? The Elections of 1800 and 1860
Kevin Portteus
The Most Contested Election: Tilden v. Hayes, 1876
Michael Barone
The Progressive Revolution: The Elections of 1932 and 1980
Charles R. Kesler
The Carter-Baker Commission on Election Integrity
John R. Lott Jr.
2020: A Stolen Election? No
Andrew Busch
Planned Lawlessness: Illegalities in the 2020 Election
Phillip Kline
Constitution Day Celebration 2021
September 14-15, 2021
Is Election Integrity a Thing of the Past?
Mark Meadows
Civil Liberties and the Biden Administration
Panel
Roundtable on
Crisis of the Two Constitutions: The Rise, Decline, and Recovery of American Greatness
by Charles R. Kesler
Panel
China: Troubled Waters Ahead
Michael Pillsbury
National Leadership Seminar — Franklin, Tennessee
April 26-27, 2021
Science, the Transgender Phenomenon, and the Young
Abigail Shrier
Education and American Politics
Larry P. Arnn
Antifa: History and Tactics
Andy Ngo
Election Integrity: The Civil Rights Issue of Our Time
Robert Barnes
CCA IV: Jane Austen on Film
March 7-11, 2021
Jane Austen on Film
James Bowman
Morality and Jane Austen
Peter J. Leithart
Life and Work of Jane Austen
Lorraine Murphy
Adapting Jane Austen
Whit Stillman
National Leadership Seminar — Phoenix, Arizona
February 18-19, 2021
Science, Politics, and COVID
Scott W. Atlas
The Future of Anti-Trump Conservatism
Raheem Kassam
Education and American Politics
Larry P. Arnn
How to Think About Climate Change
William Happer
Slanted Journalism and the 2020 Election
Sharyl Attkisson
CCA III: The Liberal Arts and Education Today
January 31-February 3, 2021
History and the Liberal Arts
E. Christian Kopff
Freedom and Education
Roger Kimball
Why Literature Matters
Glenn C. Arbery
Faith, Reason, and Education
Robert R. Reilly
The Importance of the Liberal Arts: A Physician’s View
Richard B. Gunderman
Political Correctness and Higher Education
Darel E. Paul
CCA II: Big Tech
November 8-11, 2020
What Is Big Tech?
Allum Bokhari
The Political and Cultural Conformity of Big Tech
Peter Rex
Floyd Brown
Big Tech and Political Manipulation
Robert Epstein
The Case against Regulation
Thomas W. Hazlett
The Case for Regulation
Larry Solov
Free Market Forum 2020
October 8-10, 2020
Economic Issues and the Coming Election
Stephen Moore
Space
Panel
The Breakdown of the Family
Panel
The Economics of the Coronavirus
Panel
Correcting the Progressive View of American History
Wilfred M. McClay
National Leadership Seminar — Rapid City, South Dakota
September 28-29, 2020
The Influence of Howard Zinn’s Fake History
Mary Grabar
Politics and Education
Larry P. Arnn
Liberty and the Pandemic
Kristi Noem
America’s Top National Security Concern
Brian T. Kennedy
Election Integrity in 2020
John Fund
CCA I: American Foreign Policy
September 20-23, 2020
Separation of Powers and Foreign Policy
Joseph M. Bessette
American Foreign Policy: The Four Schools of Thought
Walter Russell Mead
China as an Election Issue
Steven W. Mosher
The United States and the Middle East
Michael Doran
Liberal World Order or America First?
Panel
America First or Liberal World Order?
Panel
Constitution Day Celebration 2020
September 16-17, 2020
The Constitution and the Rule of Law
William P. Barr
The Coronavirus and the Constitution
Panel
The BLM Movement and Civil Rights
Panel
CCA I: Understanding China
September 8-11, 2019
China and the West: 1200-1900
Arthur Waldron
China Since the Communist Revolution
Frank Dikötter
The Significance of Confucius
Mark Blitz
China and Economic Warfare
Roger W. Robinson Jr.
Chinese Intelligence
Bill Gertz
The Military Threat from China Today
Steven W. Mosher
CCA IV: Romantic Comedies
March 2-6, 2014
Making
South Pacific
Mitzi Gaynor