“We have, therefore, on this occasion, peculiar reasons for thanksgiving. But let us remember that we ought not to satisfy ourselves with thanksgivings. Our gratitude, if genuine, will be accompanied with endeavors to give stability to the deliverance our country has obtained, and to extend and improve the happiness with which the Revolution has blest us.” — Richard Price

This Thanksgiving, as we gather around our tables, we are reminded of the deeper significance of such spaces. A table is where conversation becomes possible — where we listen, question, and consider ideas with charity and clarity. In Liberty Fund seminars, the table is our central institution, a place where the great texts meet the living questions of our age. As we celebrate the season of gratitude, we give thanks for the freedom that allows such conversations to thrive, for the civil society that makes them peaceful, and for the enduring tradition that invites us to seek understanding together.

The Mayflower Compact Landed on Us?

Richard Samuelson, The Online Library of Liberty

Richard Samuelson’s exploration of the Mayflower Compact illuminates how dissenting Protestantism and congregational self-government helped sow the early seeds of American republicanism. The discussion traces how these religious and political habits of independence shaped the nation’s evolving ideas of liberty while raising the provocative question of whether America’s liberal tradition can endure as its Protestant foundations fade.

Happy Smithsgiving!

Heather King, Adam Smith Works

By pairing Adam Smith’s insights from Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments, the discussion reveals how his reflections on self-interest, benevolence, and the motives behind our good deeds can reframe what it means to give thanks. It invites readers to see Thanksgiving not just as a feast, but as a moment to reflect on the kind of gratitude that strengthens communities and deepens our moral ties to one another.

The Expansion of Liberty Makes America Great

Jonathan Blanks, The Online Library of Liberty

Reflecting on David Boaz’s lifelong defense of liberty, the discussion considers how genuine gratitude for America requires an honest reckoning with its imperfect past and a recognition that freedom must be universal to be meaningful. It invites readers, in this season of thanks, to appreciate the hard-won expansion of rights and civic principles that have strengthened the nation and to remember that safeguarding liberty is an ongoing responsibility.

An Education in Thanksgiving

Rachel Alexander Cambre, Law & Liberty

Drawing on Wendell Berry’s Hannah Coulter, the piece examines how gratitude is cultivated through family, community, and the steady practice of cherishing what we’ve been given. It contrasts this deeper education in thanksgiving with modern ideals of upward mobility and self-reinvention, showing how lasting gratitude grounds us in the relationships and responsibilities that make a good life.

A National Thanksgiving: President Washington and America’s National Holiday

Richard Samuelson, Law & Liberty

George Washington’s first Thanksgiving Proclamation reveals how a simple national observance came to express the character of the American experiment and the symbolic power of the presidency. This essay invites readers to consider Washington’s belief that nations, like individuals, flourish when they acknowledge their blessings, their duties, and the moral order that sustains a free society.

Podcasts

Charles Murray on Dignity and the American Dream

The Future of Liberty

A.J. Jacobs on Thanks a Thousand

EconTalk

Videos

How the Constitution Can Bring Us Together (with Yuval Levin)

EconTalk

Yuval Levin joins Russ Roberts to discuss how the Constitution unified the nation at its founding and how a clearer understanding of its design could help strengthen democracy today. The conversation highlights how constitutional structures channel political conflict constructively and why Levin believes our current moment is less dangerous than it often appears.