A glorious thanks to my great friend, Tom Woods, a man of intense and abiding virtue. I’ve just completed my second set of courses for his Liberty Classroom.

The course is on Mythology and the Western Tradition. The first 10 lectures go from the ancient to the medieval. The second set focus on J.R.R. Tolkien.

Here’s the list:

With this set of lectures, Birzer considers the libertarian and humane essence of western civilization and mythology. That is, he asks exactly how human freedom is related to the stories we tell ourselves. In doing so, he considers the role of free will, the nature of man, the nature of man in community, and the relationship of the free individual with the divine (whether gods or God). A mini course in the great ideas of western civilization—in its Ancient and Medieval history and cultures—Birzer happily glides through the thoughts of the first Greek philosophers, Socrates, Homer, Cicero, Virgil, Sts. John, Paul, and Augustine, and Dante.

Logos and Mythos

Heraclitus and Stoicism

Zeno and Stoicism

Virgil and George Washington

Virgil and Livy

Cicero and the Natural Law

Cicero and the Natural Law, Part II

Sanctifying the Pagan

The City of God and the Divine Comedy

Why Tolkien Despised Democracy

Tolkien and Imagination

Tolkien and World War I

Tolkien and Mythology I

Tolkien and Mythology II

Tolkien and Free Will

Tolkien and Heroism