About the Course
Learn the ideas and events that gave rise to the freest country in history, why America was exceptional but is now in decline, and how to advance the ideas on which freedom depends.
To be a consistent and powerful advocate for liberty, you must understand the history of liberty, how Americans originally embraced the principles of a free society, and how and why the institutions they created have changed.
Did America’s founding generation provide an adequate grounding for liberty? If not, what was missing? What trends in thought and politics have eroded “The Land of Liberty”? And how can we use such knowledge to correct course and move toward genuine freedom, both in America and abroad?
Eric Daniels will address these and related questions with a focus on the essentials you need to know in order to fight most effectively for freedom.
You will learn:
- The essential features of a free society and how those came about in the United States, with a special focus on property rights, free speech, trade policy, contract rights, and concerns about regulation
- The major ideas and events that shaped the U.S. system of government
- How dominant ideas—from the Revolution, the Founding, and the Civil War era to the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the rise of the welfare state—either supported or undermined freedom in America
- How to identify the trends that work for and against liberty today
- The philosophic ideas that are essential to a free society
Here’s what students say about the course:
- “Dr. Daniels’s course structure was very integrated, which made it very easy to follow. He demonstrated overarching trends and showed the relationships between the topics we covered. Furthermore, he was extremely knowledgeable and prepared; he had relevant historical examples of all of the points he was making and answered students’ questions thoughtfully and thoroughly.”
- “Dr. Daniels has a great ability to take his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject and present it in a down-to-earth, digestible fashion.”
- “I enjoyed this course tremendously, and learned so much, yet I feel I could easily take it again.”
If you want to better understand the history of liberty and how to fight for it today, this course is for you.
All sessions are recorded, so if you miss a session (or want to review), you can watch the recording at your convenience.
Missed the course? We’ll notify you the next time it's offered!
How This Course Works
This course is interactive and discussion-driven, so enrollment is limited. Register early to secure your spot.
The course is held live on a video conferencing app called Zoom, which you can download for free here. Sessions are video recorded, so if you miss a session (or want to review), you can watch the recording.
The course is 12 hours long, consisting of 8 sessions of 1.5 hours each. Homework assignments are optional. Doing them may require an additional hour or more per week but will greatly enhance what you learn in this course.
Course handouts and supplementary materials are delivered via email. Course participants are invited to an exclusive OSI Courses group on Facebook, where they can post questions and engage in discussions with the instructor and other participants.
Have a question that wasn’t answered here? Read our FAQ or email us at [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions
OSI courses are live, interactive, and discussion-driven, so enrollment is limited. Register early to secure your spot.
Courses are held on Zoom, and sessions are recorded, so if you miss a session (or want to review), you can watch the recording. You can download Zoom for free here.
Courses vary in length. And some involve homework. Please see the specific course pages for details.
Course handouts and supplementary materials are delivered via email (please register with an active email address). Participants have access to an exclusive OSI Courses group on Facebook.
Zoom is a free video-conferencing app that we use to conduct our courses. You can download it here.
Sessions are video recorded, so if you miss a session (or want to review), you can watch the recording. That said, we highly recommend attending each live session so that you can ask questions and engage with your instructor(s) and other participants.
If you do miss a session, we recommend that you watch the recording before attending the next session.
Anyone aged 29 or younger may apply for an OSI scholarship to cover the full cost of a course. For information on how the scholarships work, please visit our Scholarships page.
You can see all current and past courses here.
If you have a question that isn’t answered in the FAQ or course description, please email us at [email protected].
