Contact info:
(205) 726-2434
Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, Birmingham, AL 35229
My web page at the law school (includes my bio and email address).

I'm currently developing a set of webpages for my summer class on "Legal Process," open to incoming first-year students and students in Cumberland's MCL program.  Comments are welcome:
    The Core of American Law on a Single Page
    American Constitutional History in 32 Quotations
    British/American Legal Timeline
    A Hedgehog's Legal Glossary

Roger Clegg and I are co-editors of the Federalist Society's "Conservative and Libertarian Legal Scholarship: An Annotated Bibliography" and "The Conservative and Libertarian Pre-Law Reading List".

I'm a guest blogger at Division of Labour and Point of Law.  Check 'em out!
 

Please send along comments, suggestions, warnings about broken links, etc.
Last updated on  August 20, 2010.

        I don't think we're saying anything new here.  I think we're just saying the things that need
        to be said again and again, with fierce conviction.
                                                                -- Astronaut "Deke" Slayton character in film version
                                                                    of Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff"

        We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure.
                                                                -- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

        To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.
                                                                -- George Orwell (1946)

        For more quotes, click here.

        For "this date in history" (well, not every date), click here.
 

                                                                TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.      Course Links -- On a separate page, here
II.     Indispensable Sites
III.    Economic Theory
IV.    Economic Analysis of Law
V.     Public Choice Theory
VI.    The Big Picture: Freedom and Unfreedom
VII.   Public Policy Debates
VIII.  The American Founding / American History
IX.     Legal System / Legal Profession & Legal Education / Law Reform
X.      Philosophy (including Legal Philosophy) / History (including Legal History)
XI.     Law Search Engines / Legal News & General Law Sites / Legal Blogs
XII.    "Great Books" and Other Literary / General Reference Desk
XIII.   Teach Yourself
XIV.   Diversions -- Now on a separate page; click here.
 

I.  COURSE LINKS -- On a separate page, here
 

II.  INDISPENSABLE SITES

    A.  Economics and economic history / freedom and its competitors

    Library of Economics and Liberty (from the generous folks at the Liberty Fund -- a terrific site!)
    Online Library of Liberty (ditto)

    Archive of the History of Economic Thought  (McMaster U., Canada)

    Economic Freedom Network  (home of "Economic Freedom of the World: Annual Report")
    The Greatest Century That Ever Was: 25 Miraculous Trends of the Past 100 Years (by Stephen Moore & Julian Simon, 1999) (PDF)
    The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000 (by Caplow, Hicks & Wattenberg, 2001)

    Hayek Center (includes the Hayek Scholars Page)

    Reason Magazine interview archive (many of the leading figures in the fight for liberty)

    Minneapolis Fed's magazine interview archive (ditto)

    Online Library of Liberty's "Intellectual Portrait Series" (ditto)

    Blogs and podcasts for economics students (my own)

    B.  Dictionaries, literature guides, and general reference

     The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (on the Library of Economics and Liberty, edited by David Henderson)

     History of Economic Thought  (New School U.)

     Encyclopedia of Law and Economics (FindLaw)

     Dictionary of the History of Ideas (UVa)

     Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

     Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy  (UT Martin)

     WWW Virtual Library (over 250 subjects!)

    C.  Law

    USA.gov ("the U.S. Government's official web portal"-- see esp. the "Reference Center")

    FindLaw

    Law.com ("first in legal news and information")

    Jurist  ("legal news and research")

    Google Scholar (click "Legal opinions and journals" button)
 

III.  ECONOMIC THEORY

    I think economics, like philosophy, cannot be taught to nineteen-year olds.  It is an old man's
    field.  Nineteen-year olds are, most of them, romantics, capable of memorizing and emoting, but
    not capable of thinking coldly in the cost-and-benefit way. . . .  A nineteen-year old has
    intimations of immortality, comes directly from a socialized economy (called a family), and has no
    feel on his pulse for those tragedies of adult life that economists call scarcity and choice.
                                                                -- Donald McCloskey (1992)

A1.  The Basics

     Mankiw's 10 Principles  (It doesn't get any more succinct than this.)

     Free Enterprise: The Economics of Cooperation, by Dwight Lee
     Common Sense Economics, by James Gwartney, Richard Stroup & Dwight Lee
     These are the two best, short introductions to economic reasoning I know of.  (An earlier version of the latter is online here, "adapted for Canadian readers.")  A summary of "Ten Key Elements of Economics" from Common Sense Economics appeared in the Heritage Foundation's Insider, Spring 2005 (a PDF file).

     Ten Key Ideas: Opening the Door to the Economic Way of Thinking, by Russell Roberts

     Learning Economics, by Arnold Kling (webbed intro text by the webmaster of EconLib)

     The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (edited by David Henderson)
        This is a webbed version of Fortune Magazine's Encyclopedia of Economics, also edited by Henderson.  Very clearly
        written and fully accessible to the beginner.  Thanks to the Liberty Fund, Fortune, David Henderson, and whoever else
        was involved in putting this on the web.  The Encyclopedia is part of a larger website, the
        Library of Economics and Liberty, that is indispensible.

    Keystone Economic Principles (nine key points, in PDF, from the Powell Center for Economic Literacy)

    Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt.  This classic text was first published in 1946.

     The Nature of Man, by Michael Jensen & William Meckling (PDF)

     Economics for the Citizen -- Ten short introductory essays by the prolific Walter Williams of the George Mason economics department.  Also available here.

     Economics Internet Library, by Walter Antoniotti (with links to other business sites by the same editor)

     The Concise Guide to Economics (3d ed.), by Jim Cox  (also here)

     Capitalism FAQ

    The Richmond Federal Reserve Bank's quarterly magazine, "Region Focus," regularly carries good, short articles under the headings "Jargon Alert" (economics terms), "Interview" (famous and semi-famous economists), and "Economic History" (mostly of the states in the Bank's region).

    The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has begun publishing a series of "Policy Primers" designed "to help policy makers, and others involved in the policy process, make more effective decisions by incorporating insights from sound, interdisciplinary research – with an emphasis on the role of "institutions" in promoting prosperity."  Particularly recommended:  Karol Boudreaux's "The Role of Property Rights as an Institution."

     Economic Literacy Project (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis)

     The Economist magazine's online research tools includes an economics dictionary.

     P.J. O'Rourke's interviewed about his books Eat the Rich (C-SPAN, 1999) and On the Wealth of Nations (FORA.tv, 2007)

     My list of economics blogs and podcasts.

A2.  The Next Level

    AmosWeb ("economics with a touch of whimsy")
    Virtual Library -- Economics (a huge site)
    Research Papers in Economics (over 300,000 browsable files -- "the largest bibliographic database dedicated
        to Economics and available on the Internet")
    Social Science Research Network
    Your Mining Co. Guide to Economics
    Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress

     Price Theory: An Intermediate Text (2d ed. 1990) by David Friedman (suitable for college juniors; a terrific resource)
            Friedman's C-SPAN interview re his Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life (1996)
     Introduction to Economic Analysis: The Open Source Introduction to Microeconomics by Preston McAfee (PDF) (used in the intro course at Cal Tech)
     Essential Principles of Economics: A Hypermedia Text (2d ed.) by Roger McCain
     CyberEconomics: An Analysis of Unintended Consequences by Robert Schenk (webbed textbook)
     Economics Interactive Tutorials (courtesy of the U. of S. Carolina School of Public Health)
     Economics in Excel by J. Wilson Mixon, Jr. & Soumaya M. Tohamy
     Managerial Economics by Richard Stanford (webbed textbook)
     Price Theory, a nice website for Steven Landsburg's intermediate textbook
     Tutor2uEconomics (U.K. college entrance materials)
     Russell Roberts's books, The Choice and The Invisible Heart, are described and previewed here.

     Free online course from Carnegie Mellon U: Introductory Economics

     Radio Economics (podcasts of interviews with leading economists)
     Economics at the Idea Channel (links and videos of big name economists)

      Two cool economics columns appear regularly on Slate.com -- Steven Landsburg's "Everyday Economics" and Tim Harford's "The Undercover Economist".

      The Economists' Voice is timely and well worth a look, even if pretentiously titled
      Econ Journal Watch, "a triannual peer-reviewed journal for scholarly commentary on academic economics"
      What Do Economists Contribute?  (by Dan Klein, 1999) (PDF)
      Marginal Revolution blog, "small steps toward a much better world"
      Cafe Hayek blog, "where orders emerge" (Russell Roberts (see above) and Don Boudreaux)

B.  Economic History / History of Economics

     Library of Economics and Liberty (courtesy of the Liberty Fund -- a terrific site!)
     Online Library of Liberty (ditto)
     History of Economic Thought
     Archive for the History of Economic Thought (McMaster U., Canada)
     Economic History includes an Encyclopedia of Business & Economic History and a great links page.
     The History of Economics site
     Adam Smith Lives! Sandra Peart's history of economic thought blog, with links to related sites and blogs
     My links page on the Scottish Enlightenment is here.

     Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics

     Short biographies of free-market theorists (from the Dallas Fed's "Economic Insights" publication)
     Great economists and their times (from the San Francisco Fed)
     Dead Economists Society
     Essay on the history of Nobel prize in economics, by chair of selection committee
     Article on Nobel prize in economics (from Minneapolis Fed, 1999)

      Adam Smith, THE WEALTH OF NATIONS and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (searchable)
      P.J. O'Rourke on The Wealth of Nations (2007) text and video
      Adam Smith Institute (UK)
      Adam Smith -- A Primer, by Eamonn Butler (IEA, 2007)
      Alan Macfarlane, Adam Smith and the Making of the Modern World (2000) (PDF file)
                from Macfarlane's 2000 book, The Riddle of the Modern World
      Economics and the Ordinary Person: Re-reading Adam Smith by Sam Fleischacker (2004)
      The Relevance of Adam Smith by Robert Hetzel (1976)
      Adam Smith, the sensible philosopher by David Frum (1996)
      Alan Greenspan, "Adam Smith Memorial Lecture" (2005)
          Another address by Chairman Greenspan in the Smithian vein (2004)
      Adam Smith "interview" (1994)

     Adam Smith and all that, by John Creedy (2002) (comic relief in PDF)

     Israel Kirzner, The Economic Point of View: An Essay in the History of Economic Thought (1960, 1976)

     A History of Economic Thought, by William J. Barber (webbed textbook, 1967)
     A History of Economic Analysis, by Roger Backhouse (webbed textbook, 1985)
     Classics in Economics (from Smith, Menger, Bastiat, Hayek, Mises)
     Downloadable history of economic thought books, 1588-1999 (McMaster U.)

     The Secret History of the Dismal Science, by David Levy & Sandra Peart (2001),
            and later installments here.

     Lawrence Boland's webpage (Simon Fraser U., many articles and books available for download)

     Wealth of Notions, from the U. of Chicago Alumni magazine, about Chicago Nobelists (2001)
     Arnold Harberger interview (1999)
     George Stigler interview (1989)
     Milton Friedman interview (2000)
     Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory

     Kenneth Arrow on Cowles in the History of Economic Thought (1983)

     Philosophy of economics links (from EpistemeLinks)

     Business History (large links site)
     Incomplete Guide to the Political Economy of the 20th Century (Independent Institute)
     Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy (site for the 1998 PBS mini-series)
     Ancient Economies
     Oxford U. teaching materials in economic history
     Keith Poole's economic history course pages (scroll down to U. of Houston and Carnegie-Mellon)
     John Munro's European economic history course pages (U. of Toronto)
     Niall Ferguson (Harvard)
     Harvard Business School's business history unit (includes working papers and the Business History Review)
     WWW Virtual Library Economic & Business History
     Best of the Web has a nice page of economic history links.

C.  International Economics / Free Trade

     The Candlemakers' Petition, by Frederic Bastiat
     The Case for Free Trade, by Milton & Rose Friedman
     The Assault on Free Trade, by Dennis Avery
     The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism, by Russell Roberts (excerpts)
     summary of Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade, by Irwin
     Cato Center for Trade Policy Studies (its founder, Brink Lindsey, wrote the excellent "Against the Dead Hand")
     The Fruits of Free Trade (Dallas Fed 2002 annual report)
     Jagdish Bhagwati's home page (Columbia U. international trade guru)
     International Economics Study Center (textbook & more from Geo Wash U prof; free registration)
    CIA Handbook of International Economic Statistics (1998)

D.  Numbers

     Resources for Economists on the Internet, courtesy of the American Economic Association
     FedStats.gov, "statistics from more than 100 agencies"
     Economic Reports of the President, 1995-2006 (Executive Office of the President)
     Statistical Resources on the Web (U. of Michigan; a great site!)
     National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
     Economic Time Series Page
     Measuring Worth (successor to How Much Is That?)
     Statistics on the Web
     SurfStat.australia (on-line statistics text)
     The Web Center for Social Research Methods (Cornell)
     Institute for Quantitative Social Science (Harvard)
     The Chance Project (Dartmouth)
     Statistical Assessment Service, critiques media use of statistics
     WebMath (large site, ranging from help for grade schoolers doing their homework, on up)
     John Allen Paulos's home page (the author of Innumeracy, and A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market)
     Andrew Gelman's statistics blog

     Free online courses from Carnegie Mellon U: Statistics and Causal & Statistical Reasoning and Empirical Research Methods
     see also Sykes, "An Introduction to Regression Analysis" in section IV, below

E.  Austrian Economics

     Ludwig von Mises Institute, including --
         An introduction to Austrian economics; an Austrian economics study guide; several Austrian and libertarian journals, a huge library of webbed texts, including  Mises's landmark treatise, Human Action and a blog.  Also on the site is a PDF version of Gene Callahan's book, Economics for Real People: An Introudction to the Austrian School (2d ed. 2004).
     Society for the Development of Austrian Economics
     Peter Boettke's homepage
     Hayek Scholars Page -- the related Presto Pundit blog
     Hayek Links -- just what it sounds like
     Transcript of PBS program, Friedrich Hayek, "Away from Serfdom" (Sept. 1999)
     The condensed version of The Road to Serfdom (1945) from the April 1945 issue of Reader's Digest
     Two of Hayek's most influential articles (the first two listed, as you scroll down)
           Another version of "The Use of Knowledge in Society"
           Another version of "The Use of Knowledge in Society"
     Hayek interview (conducted in 1977, reprinted in July 1992 issue of Reason)
     1974 Nobel Prize in economics to Hayek
     Hayek for the 21st Century (interview of Hayek scholar Bruce Caldwell, Jan. 2005 Reason)
     C-SPAN interviews of
            Alan Ebenstein re his biography of Hayek (2001)
            Milton Friedman re his Introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of The Road to Serfdom (1994)
     No Third Way: Hayek and the Recovery of Freedom by Gregg & Kasper (1999)
     Hayek and the Law -- 14 articles in the inaugural issue of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty (2005), PDF files
     Cato Journal symposium on The Legacy of Mises and Hayek (1999)
     Cafe Hayek blog
     The Austrian Economists blog
     Knowledge Problem blog
     Catallarchy blog, an Austrian blog edited by non-PhD enthusiasts

F.  Game Theory / Experimental Economics

     Game Theory: An Introductory Sketch by Roger McCain
     Game Theory & Experimental Economics Page by Al Roth
     Choice Models and Experimental Economics by Roger Tucker; under revision
     David Levine's game theory page (UCLA)
     GameTheory.net (Vanderbilt)
     Prisoners' Dilemma page  (constitution.org)
     On-line prisoners' dilemma simulation
     More games to play  (MIT)
     Robert Axelrod's Complexity of Cooperation Web Site (U. of Michigan)
     Charles Holt's web page on teaching through experimental economics (U.Va.)
     Barry Nalebuff's Coopetition Interactive site (Yale)
     Economic Science Laboratory (University of Arizona)
     Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (George Mason)
     Economic Science Institute (Chapman U.)
     Laboratory for Experimental Economics & Political Science (Cal Tech)
     Center on Social & Economic Dynamics (Brookings Institution)
     Iowa Electronic Markets
     Washington Stock Exchange ("a virtual stock market based on the future outcomes of US political elections and events" due to launch in late 2006)
    Classroom Expernomics (experiments for classroom use)
     Experiments with Economic Principles (by Theodore Bergstrom & John Miller)
     Seeing Around Corners, a book by Jonathan Rauch "about what the study of artificial societies has to tell us about the real world" and an  interview of Rauch are available online only to Atlantic subscribers, unfortunately.
     See also Picker, "An Introduction to Game Theory and the Law," and Picker, "Simple Games in a Complex World," in Section IV, below
     1994 Nobel Prize in economics to J. Harsanyi, J. Nash & R. Selten
     2002 Nobel Prize in economics to Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith
           interviews of Smith, 2002 and 2003
     2005 Nobel Prize in economics to Thomas Schelling and Robert Aumann
           2005 interviews of Schelling by the Financial Times and the Richmond Fed
 

IV.  ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF LAW

    The same persons who cry down Logic will generally warn you against Political Economy.  It is
    unfeeling, they will tell you.  It recognises unpleasant facts.  For my part, the most unfeeling thing
    I know of is the law of gravitation: it breaks the neck of the best and most amiable person without
    scruple, if he forgets for a single moment to give heed to it.  The winds and waves too are very
    unfeeling.  Would you advise those who go to sea to deny then winds and waves -- or to make
    use of them, and find the means of guarding against their dangers?  My advice to you is to study
    the great writers on Political Economy, and hold firmly by whatever in them you find true; and
    depend on it that if you are not selfish or hard-hearted already, Political Economy will not make
    you so.
                                                                -- John Stuart Mill (1867)

     Federalist Society bibliography (scroll down to law & economics)
     FindLaw Law & Economics page (including the Encyclopedia of Law & Economics)
     Jurist subject guide to law & economics
     Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do With Law and Why It Matters, David Friedman's fine intro textbook.  Check out the rest of his homepage.
      Cento Veljanovski, The Economics of Law (2d ed. 2006), a fine, downloadable short text; thanks to IEA.
      Thomas Miceli, The Economic Approach to Law (2d ed. 2008), a large site supporting this textbook.
      A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell, Economic Analysis of Law (2005), a brief digest of the core of the field, to be published in the second edition of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics.
      Lewis Kornhauser, The Economic Analysis of Law (2006), an entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by a major figure in the field.
      Bruce Benson's home page  (including his dictionary entry for "law and economics")
      Cooter & Ulen's Law & Economics (5th ed. 2007), the largest-selling college textbook
      George Mason U. law & economics program
      Harvard Law School's Olin Center for Law, Economics & Business working papers archive includes
          dozens of papers of interest in PDF format, including
                # 340.  Steven Shavell, "Law versus Morality as Regulators of Conduct" (Nov. 2001)
                # 342.  Louis Kaplow & Steven Shavell, "Moral Rules and Moral Sentiments: Toward a
                            Theory of an Optimal Moral System" (Nov. 2001)
                # 277.  Louis Kaplow & Steven Shavell, "Principles of Fairness versus Human Welfare:
                            On the Evaluation of Legal Policy" (February 2000)
                # 283.  Steven Shavell, "Economic Analysis of Law" (June 2000) -- a survey article for
                            the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2001)
     U. of Chicago Law School, Olin Program in Law & Economics hosts a great links page and working papers, including
                #92.  Eric Posner, "Agency Models in Law & Economics" (January 2000)
                #53.  Richard Posner, "Values and Consequences: An Introduction to Economic
                            Analysis of Law"  (March 1998)
                #49.  Richard Epstein, "Contract Law Through the Lens of Laissez-Faire"
                #38.  Richard Epstein, "Transaction Costs and Property Rights -- Or, Do Good Fences
                            Make Good Neighbors?"
                #33.  Richard Craswell, "Freedom of Contract"  (August 1995)
                #22.  Randal Picker, "An Introduction to Game Theory and the Law"  (June 1994)  (see also materials on game theory in Section II.F, above)
                #20.  Alan Sykes, "An Introduction to Regression Analysis"  (October 1993) (see also materials on statistics in II.D)
    U. of Chicago Graduate School of Business "Selected Papers" and "Capital Ideas" websites offer PDF versions of classic articles by Chicago economists on a number of topics, including
                # 61    Sam Peltzman, Deregulation: The Expected and the Unexpected
                # 56    Eugene Fama, The Disciplining of Corporate Managers
                # 50    Ronald Coase, Milton Friedman, and George Stigler on Adam Smith
                # 45    Milton Friedman, Free Markets for Free Men
                # 39    George Stigler, Modern Man and His Corporation
                # 32    Yale Brozen, Competition, Efficiency and Antitrust
                # 20    Lorie on the stock market
                # 16    Eugene Fama on the stock market
                #  3, 7, 13, 58    papers by George Stigler
    Encyclopedia of Law and Economics entries for
            The Coase Theorem (#730, Medema)
            Transaction Costs (#740, Allen)
     see also "Public Choice, Constitutional Pol Economy, and Law & Econ," in Section V, below
     In Defense of the Economic Analysis of Regulation, by Robert Hahn (AEI, 2004) -- for PDF file click here
     AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies
    More on regulation and administrative law in section D of my course links page

     Richard Epstein's homepage.
            The full text of his 2005 book, Free Markets Under Seige, is available online courtesy of the Hoover Institution.
            There are a number of his writings on the website of the New Zealand Business Roundtable (search on "Epstein").
            His book, Principles for a Free Society, is summarized in his 1998 speech at AEI by the same title.
           See also his Reason magazine interview, in section VI, below.

      Richard Posner's homepage.  He was interviewed by Reason magazine in April 2001, and appeared on C-SPAN to discuss his book, Public Intellectuals, in 2002.  Also in 2002, Posner allowed a week's worth of his diary entries to be published on Slate; click here for the Friday installment, which includes links to the other 4 days of that week.
      You may view video clips of an interview of Judge Posner at Big Think.
      Project Posner is a searchable database of Posner's judicial opinions, stretching back to 1981.  A great resource!
      In 2007 both the University of Chicago Law Review and the Harvard Law Review published special issues celebrating Posner's 25th anniversary on the beach, with many of the authors focusing on a single Posner opinion each.

     Ronald Coase interview (Reason, January 1997)
     recent article about Coase (Nov. 2004)
            the Ronald Coase Institute
            the Contracting and Organizations Research Institute, work in the Coasian vein, at the U. of Missouri
     Autobiographical essay by Coase (1991)
     1991 Nobel Prize in economics to Ronald Coase
           Coase lecture at U. of Chicago, April 2003 (Quick Time)

     1992 Nobel Prize in economics to Gary Becker
           interview of Becker  (June 2002)
     The Becker-Posner Blog (yep!)
 

V.  PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY

        In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics." All issues are political issues,
        and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. . . .  Political
        language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to
        give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
                                                                                        -- George Orwell (1946)

        The U.S. government is a sort of permanent frat pledge to every special interest in the
        nation -- willing to undertake any task no matter how absurd or useless. . . .  Politics
        would not exist if it weren't for special interests.  If the effect of government were always
        the same on everyone and if no one stood to lose or gain anything from government
        except what his fellows did, there would be little need for debate and no need for
        coalitions, parties or intrigue. . . .  The whole idea of our government is this: If enough
        people get together and act in concert, they can take something and not pay for it.
                                                                                        -- P.J. O'Rourke (1991)

     Federalist Society bibliography  (scroll down to public choice)
     The Public Choice Revolution, by Pierre Lemieux
     Understanding Democracy: An Introduction to Public Choice, by Patrick Gunning (check out the "downloadable samples" -- even though the full text is no longer available, alas)
     Introduction to Public Choice Theory, by Leon Felkins, including "A Rational Life: The Peculiar Consequences of Individuals Living in Groups"
     Encyclopedia of L&E entries for
             Public Choice, Constitutional Political Economy, and Law & Econ (#610, Van den Hauwe)
             Public Goods and Club Goods (#750, McNutt)
     U. of Chicago Olin Program in Law & Economics Working Papers includes numerous papers of interest in PDF, including:
                #60.  John R. Lott, Jr., "How Dramatically Did Women's Suffrage Change the Size and
                            Scope of Government?" (September 1998)
                #54.  Denise DiPasquale & Edward L. Glaeser, "Incentives and Social Capital: Are
                            Homeowners Better Citizens?" (April 1998)
                #52.  John R. Lott, Jr., "A Simple Explanation for Why Campaign Expenditures Are
                            Increasing: The Government is Getting Bigger" (February 1998)
                #34.  J. Mark Ramseyer, "Public Choice" (November 1994)
      Public choice resource page from Constitution.org
     "Yes, Minister" was a very popular British TV show that satirized politics, often along lines consistent with public choice theory.  For a good fansite, check out The Yes (Prime) Minister Files.
     Charles Adam's C-SPAN interview re his For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization (1993)
     Ilya Somin, When Ignorance Isn't Bliss: How Political Ignorance Threatens Democracy (Cato, 2004, pdf)
     Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior & Institutions, to accompany the Shepsle & Bonchek textbook
     Open Secrets  (campaign contributions database)
     Farm Subsidy Database, from the Environmental Working Group
     Vote View, info on Congressional voting patterns from Keith Poole of UC San Diego
     Mathew McCubbins' home page, also at UC San Diego
     Randall Holcombe's homepage (Florida State U.)
     Kenneth Arrow interview (1995)
     Politics, Philosophy & Economics (journal)
     Bruno Frey's public choice research group at U.of Zurich (in English)
     Center for Study of Public Choice (George Mason U.)
           Public Choice Society
     Short article on tax legislation as opportunity for extortion

     Gordon Tullock homepage (George Mason U.)
     Papers on Gordon Tullock's career on his 80th birthday
     Tullock interview (2003)
     Tullock on privilege seeking

     James Buchanan interviews from 1995 and 2004 (pdf)
     Buchanan, What Is Public Choice Theory? (2003)
     Buchanan, Saving the Soul of Classical Liberalism (2000)
     James Buchanan Center for Political Economy, George Mason U.
           dozens of papers in honor of Buchanan
     1986 Nobel Prize in economics to James Buchanan
     The Collected Works of James Buchanan, courtesy of the Liberty Fund.  A fantastic online resource.
 

VI.  THE BIG PICTURE:  FREEDOM AND UNFREEDOM

    The great and chief end of men uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under
    government, is the preservation of their property.
                                                                                       -- John Locke (1690)

    The Dane never showed up but they had the "seminar" anyway, under some shade trees
    in a place called the French Park.  Jay Bomarr opened it with his famous speech, "Come
    Dream Along with Me."  I had heard it myself, at Ole Miss of all places, back in the days
    when Jay was drawing big crowds.  It was a dream of blood and smashed faces, with a
    lot of talk about "the people," whose historic duty it was to become a nameless herd and
    submit their lives to the absolute control of a small pack of wily and vicious intellectuals.
                                                                                        -- Charles Portis, "The Dog of the
                                                                                            South" (1979)

     Richard Epstein interview (April 1995 issue of Reason)
     Richard Pipes, "Life, Liberty, Property" (1999)
     Richard Pipes, Property and Freedom: The Inseparable Connection (2004)
     Survey: Capitalism and Democracy, from The Economist, June 26, 2003, the magazine's 160th birthday.
     P.J. O'Rourke, The Liberty Manifesto (1993)
     P.J. O'Rourke, Closing the Wealth Gap (1997)
     P.J. O'Rourke, A Message to Redistributionists (1997)
     P.J. O'Rourke, The Problem is Politics (2008)
     P.J. O'Rourke and Robert Bork reminisce about the '60s (1997)
     Paul Heyne, Moral Misunderstanding and the Justification of Markets (1998)
     Tibor Machan's recent papers (philosopher concerned with economic rights/liberties)

     Bruce Bartlett, How Excessive Government Killed Ancient Rome (1994)

     Sean Gabb, How English Liberalism was Created by Accident and Custom, and then Destroyed by Liberals
     Frederic Bastiat site
     Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1850)
     Frederic Bastiat, The Law (1850)

    The Progressive Movement and the Transformation of American Politics, by West & Schambra (2007)
     The Declaration of Independence in American, by H.L. Mencken (1918)
     The New Deal Network, from the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
     Constitution for the New Deal, by H.L. Mencken (1937)
     The Revolution Was, by Garet Garrett (1938)
     Dennis Hutcheson C-SPAN interview re his book, The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox: A Year in the Life of a Supreme Court Clerk in FDR's Washington (2002)
     A Constitutional History of the United States, by Andrew C. McLaughlin (1936 (before the deluge))

    Liberty at Risk: The Least Every Citizen Should Know About Capitalism and its Enemies, by Dean Worcester, late professor of economics at the U. of Washington, in PDF
    Liberty Story (edited by Jim Powell, includes a terrific archive of "key documents in the history of liberty")

    The Heritage Foundation's Index of Government Dependency

    American Universities and the Betrayal of Liberty (2006) by Alan Charles Kors (audio)
    David Horowitz's Discover the Network: "a guide to the political left"

    Reason Magazine interview archive (many of the leading figures in the fight for liberty)
    Minneapolis Fed's magazine interview archive (ditto)
    Online Library of Liberty's "Intellectual Portrait Series" (ditto)

     Coercion v. consent: How to think about liberty (A Reason magazine (March '04) debate featuring Richard Epstein, Randy Barnett, David Friedman, and James Pinkerton)
    Gertrude Himmelfarb's C-SPAN interview re her book, The De-Moralization of Society (1995)
    Samuel Brittan, Financial Times columnist

     Economic Freedom of the World, 2009 Annual Report (Gwartney & Lawson)
           Economic Freedom Network
    2010 Index of Economic Freedom (excerpts) (Miles, Feulner & O'Grady)
    Gapminder World (cool graphics)   
    NationMaster (worldwide statistics)

     Peter Bauer was an eloquent free-market economist whose career has been devoted to the field of developmental economics.  In 2002, the Cato Institute awarded him its first "Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty."  See Cato's tribute to Bauer.
     Mancur Olson was an economist at the University of Maryland who died suddenly in 1998.  His later work was devoted to questions of economic development -- in particular the importance of legal and other institutions to economic growth and human welfare.  A number of his writings are available online by searching on "mancur" here.
     Julian Simon also taught at Maryland at the time of his death, also untimely and also in 1998.  He wrote about population growth, immigration, and other topics in an optimisitcally iconoclastic mode.  His colleague Stephen Moore's tribute is here.  See also their lengthy article, The Greatest Century That Ever Was: 25 Miraculous Trends of the Past 100 Years (1999) (PDF)
    Along the same lines as Simon's work, see Caplow, Hicks & Wattenberg, The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000 (2001).  The website for the companion PBS program is here.
     Also in this vein, see the very readable feature stories in the annual reports of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

    Avner Greif, Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade, Cambridge U. Press.  and on his website.

    The Birth of Plenty (2004), by William Bernstein (site includes exerpts from the preface and introduction, and the whole of chapter one)
    Angus Maddison's website
            Maddison's 2005 book, Growth & Interaction in the World Economy: The Roots of Modernity (AEI, 2005)
    Groningen Growth & Development Centre (Netherlands)
    The World Economy (the OECD)

     The Industrial Revolution: Past and Future by Robert Lucas, for the Minneapolis Fed, May 2004
     Forbes Magazine's 85th Anniversary Issue is chock-full of interesting business history items.
     Jerry L. Jordan, Sources of Prosperity (1998)
     Dynamist.com,the work of Virginia Postrel, current NY Times economics columnist and former editor of Reason magazine, includes her blog.  See also her C-SPAN interview re her book, The Future and Its Enemies (1999).
     See the website for the PBS program "Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy" in Section III.B., above
     Institute for Humane Studies (George Mason U.)
     International Society for Individual Liberty, the successor to Free-Market.net
           Henry Hazlitt Foundation (archives only)
     Intellectual Conservative
     Economist Magazine's Survey of the 20th Century (9-11-1999)
     John Stossel (ABC News) program, "Is America #1?: The Success & Failure of Societies" (transcript, 9-19-99)
     15 lectures on democracy at Yale University, 2001 (text and audio)
     Dave Barry interview (1994)

     World Development, Inc.
     Publications and working papers of
           Harvard economists Robert Barro, Edward Glaeser, and Andrei Shleifer are available here.
           Dartmouth economist Raphael LaPorta available here.
           MIT economist Daron Acemoglu available here.
     Hernando DeSoto interviews 2001 and 1999
     DeSoto, Citadels of Dead Capital (May 2001)

     The Legacy of Milton and Rose Friedman's Free to Choose (papers from a conference at the Dallas Fed, 2003)

     William F. Buckley archive (a huge site, hosted by Hillsdale College)
     Firing Line Television Program Collection (hosted by the Hoover Institution)

     Thomas Sowell's homepage
         Thomas Sowell interviews 1999 and 2001
     Eric Voegelin Institute at LSU (20th c. political philosopher)
         Eric Voegelin study page
     Michael Oakeshott Association (UK) (another 20th c. political philosopher)
     Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library (UK) (20th c. philosopher)

    The Churchill Centre (Washington, DC)
    Churchill Archives Centre (U. of Cambridge)

     Robert Conquest C-SPAN interview re his Reflections on a Ravaged Century (1999)
            Robert Conquest, Freedom, Terror, and Falsehoods: Lessons from the 20th Century (2000)
     Leszek Kolakowski and the anatomy of totalitarianism, by Roger Kimball (2005)
     Vaclav Havel (former president, Czech Republic) home page.  Havel's May 2005 address at the Library of Congress on human rights, "with particular attention to countries such as Cuba, China, Belarus and Burma" (video here).  Details of his seven-week visit to Columbia U. in the fall of 2006 are available here.
     House of Terror Museum, Budapest
     Museum of Communism (Bryan Caplan, George Mason U.)
     The Cambridge Spies (Philby, Burgess, Blunt, Maclean)
     NSA museum web site, including discussion of the Venona documents
     Freedom, Democide, War (R.J. Rummel, U. of Hawaii)
            Professor Rummel's blog
            His 2005 essay on "The Red Plague"
     Is the Spectre of Communism Still Haunting the World? (2006) by Richard Ebeling (audio) or text
     George Orwell Homepage
         Orwell's Revenge: The 1984 Palimpsest, by Peter Huber
     Anne Applebaum's website
        Her C-SPAN interview re her book Gulag: A History (2003)
     Revelations from the Russian Archives (Library of Congress, 1992)
     Malcolm Muggeridge: The Iconoclast links page
     Excerpts from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 1978 Harvard address, with 1998 commentary

     Pope John Paul II's encyclicals on "The Hundredth Year" (capitalism vs. socialism) and
        "Faith and Reason" (epistemology, modernism, etc.)
      Margaret Thatcher Foundation, "offers free access to the full texts of thousands of documents relating to the politics of the last quarter of a century"
      Margaret Thatcher symposium, with a nice links page (Chapman U., 2002)
      Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (NARA and U. of Texas)
      Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation

     James C. Bennett, The Anglosphere Challenge (why the English-speaking nations will lead the way in the 21st century")
           The Anglosphere Institute
           Albion's Seedlings (blog)

     C-SPAN interviews of
           Paul Hollander re his Anti-Americanism (1992)
            David Gelernter re his Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber (1997)
            Mona Charen re her Useful Idiots (2003)

     Getting Rich in America: A Few Easy Rules to Follow, by Richard McKenzie & Dwight Lee
     Guide to Personal Finance (Malcolm Getz, Vanderbilt U.)
     Paul Romer, Economic Growth, in Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics
            and his essay on Economic Growth for the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia, due out 2007
         Romer interview (requires registration; 1997)
         Wired magazine on Romer's work, 1996
     The Milken Institute
     Piercing the Gloom and Doom, by Herbert London (1999)

     John Fonte, Why There Is a Culture War (2000; it's Tocqueville vs. Gramsci)
     Robert Nozick, Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism? (1998)
     Center for Media and Public Affairs (Robert Lichter's group)

     Dictionary of Key Terms for a Free and Virtuous Society, from the Acton Institute
         In the Liberal Tradition: A History of Liberty, ditto
     Francis Fukuyama's homepage (Johns Hopkins U.)

     UCSB Center for Evolutionary Psychology (includes "Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer")
     Tom Bethell, Against Sociobiology (2001)

     The Freeman (monthly, Foundation for Economic Education)
     Policy Review (bi-monthly, Hoover Institution)
     Independent Review (quarterly, Independent Institute)
     Freedom's Nest (quotes page)

     1993 Nobel Prize in economics to Robert Vogel and Douglass North
           Center for New Institutional Social Sciences, Washington U. (St. Louis)
 

VII.  PUBLIC POLICY DEBATES

    RegInfo.gov  "Where to find Federal Regulatory Information"
    FedStats.gov, "statistics from more than 100 agencies"

A.  Timely Sites (including blogs)

     Investors Business Daily editorial page
     Wall Street Journal editorial page
         The Journal editorial board's list of (and links to) their favorite websites.
         Best of the Web daily from the Journal
     Town Hall
           Townhall Columnists (collection of more than 60 conservative columnists)
     The American Prowler (daily offerings by the people who produce The American Spectator)
     NewsMax.com
     Freedom News Daily
     World Net Daily

     NewsDirectory.com (links to hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and other media outlets -- worldwide)

     Mark Steyn
     James Lileks (the daily commentary ("The Bleat") is only part of what's on offer here; don't miss The Institute of Official
        Cheer, the Old Ad Archive, or the Bureau of Corporate Allegory!)
     Rush Limbaugh
     Michael Barone's blog
     Victor Davis Hanson (classical scholar, military historian)
     Michael Novak, "author, philosopher, theologian"
     My favorite Washington Post columnists are Charles Krauthammer, Robert Samuelson, and George Will.
     David Gelernter
     Michael Kelly archives, 1999-2003
     National Journal

     Ben Wattenberg's Think Tank (PBS program)
     Peter Robinson's Uncommon Knowledge (ditto)
     Larry Sabato's Center for Politics at UVA
     OxBlog follows international relations
     Austin Bay's blog focuses on the war on terror
     Daniel Drezner blogs on and teaches international relations at Tufts U.
     David Warren's "Essays on our Times"
     Lee Harris articles archived at Policy Review and Tech Central Station

     The American Scene blog promises "an ongoing review of politics and culture"
     Hit and Run is Reason Magazine's blog
     Tech Central Station is always worth a look
            Podcasts archive

B.  Market-Oriented Thinks Tanks

     Citizens' Guide to Conservative Organizations (from the Heartland Institute)
     Policy Experts: The Insider Guide to Public Policy Experts and Organizations (from the Heritage Foundation)
     "Freedom Directory" links to "nearly 500 think tanks worldwide" (from the Atlas Foundation)

     Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty
            Blog:  PowerBlog
     American Enterprise Institute
             Events archive
     Atlas Economic Research Foundation
     Cato Institute
            Blog:  Cato at Liberty
            Online magazine:  Cato Unbound
            Podcasts archive
     Competitive Enterprise Institute
            Blog:  CEI Open Market
     Heritage Foundation
            Blog:  Heritage Policy Blog
            Blog:  The Insider
            Events archive
           Regulation Watch (Heritage's "one-stop page for information on regulation in America")
     Hoover Institution
     Independent Institute
     Especially for state and local issues:
           Citizens for a Sound Economy (includes link to Alabama chapter)
           Heartland Institute
                   Blog:  From the Heartland
           Mackiniac Center (based in Michigan, but includes lots of more general material, too)
           John Locke Institute (based in North Carolina)
           Pope Center for Higher Education (a fine site)
           Faculty Affiliate Network (every state should have one of these)
               Blog:  The Locker Room
          Alabama Policy Institute
     see also section I.D. of the Course Links page (especially Regulation.org and Regulation Magazine)
 

VIII.  THE AMERICAN FOUNDING / AMERICAN HISTORY

        And you may ask yourself -- Well . . . How did I get here?
                                                     -- David Byrne (Talking Heads), "Once in a Lifetime"
                                                               (sometime in the '80s) (video)

        The characteristic danger of great nations, like the Romans and the English, which have a
        long history of continuous creation, is that they may at last fail from not comprehending
        the great institutions that they have created.
                                                    -- Walter Bagehot (1832)

     Federalist Society bibliography (scroll down to the founding)

     Core Documents of US Democracy (Gov't Printing Office)
     Historical Documents  (Library of Congress)
     Our Documents:  100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives
     The Interactive Constitution (National Constitution Center, Philadelphia)
     A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: US Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875 (Library of Congress)

     The Founders' Constitution (a terrific resource, from the U. of Chicago Press)
     The Founders' Almanac (ditto, from The Heritage Foundation)
     Constitutional Convention and Ratification of the Constitution (from Teaching American History at Ashland U.)
     Primary Documents of American History
     Bruce Frohnen, ed., The American Republic: Primary Sources

     Avalon Project (Yale Law School)
     Founding Documents  (Emory Law School)
     A Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents  (U. of Oklahoma)
     Documents for the Study of American History (U. of Kansas)
     Founding.com (Claremont Institute)
     Constitution Society  (includes Cooke edition of The Federalist Papers)
     Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics
     The Panda's Thumb: The Modest and Mercantlist Original Meaning of the Commerce Clause , by  Calvin H. Johnson (2004)
     A Constitutional History of the United States, by Andrew C. McLaughlin (1936 (before the deluge))

     Colonial Origins of American Liberty, by Thomas Woods
     Classics of American Colonial History (Dinsmore Documentation)

     James Madison website (James Madison U.)
           The Center for the Constitution, at Montpelier, Madison's home
     The Papers of George Washington (UVa)
     Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive (UVa)
     George Mason online

     C-SPAN interviews of
            Bernard Baylyn re his To Begin the World Anew (2003)
            Michael Novak re his On Two Wings (2002)
            Gordon Wood re his  The American Revolution (2002)
            Thomas West re his Vindicating the Founders (1997)
            Kent Newmyer re his John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court (2002)

     American Memory (Library of Congress)
     A Timeline of American Thought (Oklahoma State U.)
     American Political History On-line (Richard Jensen, UIC)
     American Experience (PBS)
     Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (includes search engine for the Gilder Lehrman Collection)
     American History HTML Project
     De Tocqueville's Democracy in America (searchable)
         Alexis de Tocqueville  page
         Harvey Mansfield's C-SPAN interview re his translation of Tocqueville (2000)
     American Heritage magazine
     HarpWeek:  Harper's Weekly in the 19th century
     Making of America (U. of Michigan site containing thousands of 19th century journals and books)
     Department of American Studies, UVA (very cool American culture site)
     Teaching American History  (from the Ashbrook Center @ Ashbrook U.)
     History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web (George Mason U.)
     Paul Johnson C-SPAN interview re his History of the American People (1998)
         Review of Johnson's History of the American People, by Hadley Arkes

    Gordon Lloyd's excellent web pages on, inter alia, the American Founding, the French Revolution, political economy, and the New Deal (links are at the bottom of this page)
 

IX.  LEGAL SYSTEM / LEGAL PROFESSION & LEGAL EDUCATION / LAW REFORM

     THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY FOR LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY STUDIES
     RAND Corporation Institute for Civil Justice
     Understanding the Federal Courts, from the Administrative Office of the US Courts
     US Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics
     C-SPAN's America and the Courts
     From the Encyclopedia of Law and Economics:
        # 9000, General Character of Rules, by Kaplow
        # 9200, Judge Made Law, by Rubin
        # 7100, Judicial Organization and Administration, by Kornhauser
        # 7000, Civil Procedure: General, by Kobayashi & Parker
     The Oyez Project: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia (Northwestern U.)
     On the Docket: US Supreme Court News (Northwestern U.)
     U.S. Supreme Court (official site)

     Clegg & DeBow, Conservative and Libertarian Pre-Law Reading List (for the Federalist Society)
     Clegg & DeBow, Pre-law prerequisities: A guide to the post-socialist world (Policy Review, 1994)
      John McGinnis, Impeachable Defenses  --  Excellent article discussing, among other things, the dominant ideology among law professors and in the law schools.  Highly recommended !
     Jurist: The Law Professors' Network  (good source for legal news)
     The Green Bag ("An Entertaining Journal of Law")

     Lawyers, Gums, and Rummies: Why do we hate lawyers (Walter Olson)
     Walter Olson's homepage (legal reform)
     Olson runs 2 blogs on problems in our legal system and the need for reform: Overlawyered.com and PointofLaw.com
     Trial Lawyers Inc. ("a report on the lawsuit industry in America")
     Association of Trial Lawyers of America  vs.  American Tort Reform Association
            see also ATRA's Tracking the Trial Lawyers re campaign contributions
     Institute for Legal Reform of the US Chamber of Commerce offers a good links page
     American Justice Partnership's "legal reform in the news"
     C-SPAN interviews of
         Max Boot re his Out of Order: Arrogance, Corruption, and Incompetence on the Bench (1998)
         Dennis Hutchinson re his The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox (2002)

    American Law Institute(where Restatements come from)
    National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (where uniform acts come from)
 

X.  PHILOSOPHY (INCLUDING LEGAL PHILOSOPHY) / HISTORY (INCLUDING LEGAL HISTORY)

    Federalist Society bibliography (scroll down to jurisprudence)
    Dictionary of Key Terms for a Free and Virtuous Society (Acton Institute)
    Classical Political Theory Web and Modern Political Theory websites (Western Illinois U.)

    Legal Theory Lexicon -- described by its author, Professor Lawrence Solum of the U. of Illinois law school, as "basic concepts in legal theory for first year law students" -- highly recommended.  His Legal Theory  blog focuses on legal philosophy.
    Jurisprudence: An Overview (from Cornell's Legal Information Institute)
    Philosophy of law links
    Excerpts from Randy Barnett, The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law
    Oxford U. legal philosophy sites here and here
    U. of Texas law and philosophy program

    Robert Bork on the future of the rule of law (First Things, Jan. 2000)
    Bork's C-SPAN interview re his Slouching Towards Gomorrah (1996)
    Robert Bork, ed., A Country I Do Not Recognize: The Legal Assault on American Values (2005).  Bork's introduction and essays by Lino Graglia, Gary McDowell, Terry Eastland, David Davenport, and Lee Casey & David Rivkin are downloadable, free, as PDF files.

    Robert George, What Is Law? A Century of Arguments (First Things, April 2001)
    J. Budziszewski, The Revenge of Conscience (First Things, June/July 1998)
    J. Budziszewski, Written on the Heart: The Case for Natural Law reviewed (First Things, Nov. 1997)
    Symposium: The End of Democracy? The Judicial Usurpation of Politics (First Things, Nov. 1996)
            symposium continued (First Things, January 1997)
            symposium critiqued (Commentary Magazine, Feb. 1997)
            Budziszewski, Tne Future of the End of Democracy (First Things, March 1999)
    Steven Smith, The Constitution in the Cave (First Things, May 2000)
    Symposium: The Supreme Court 2000 (First Things, October 2000)
    Steven Smith, Legal Theories Nobody Believes (First Things, November 2000) (review of 2 books on the Warren Court and one on the Burger Court)
    Judge Edith Jones, Contemporary Threats to the Rule of Law, James Madison Program, Princeton U., 2001 (pdf)
    Michael Uhlmann, The Supreme Court Rules (First Things, October 2003)
    Steven Smith, Conciliating Hatred (First Things, June/July 2004)
    Michael Uhlmann, The Supreme Court Rules: 2004 (First Things, October 2004)

     Dictionary of the History of Ideas (UVa)
     Thoemmes Encylcopedia of the History of Ideas

     Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
     Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (including Philosophy Text Collection)
     Meta-Encyclopedia of Philosophy  (search engine for on-line philosophy encyclopedias)

     WWW Virtual Library: Philosophy
     Episteme Links
     Hippias (philosophy search engine)
     American Philosophical Association links pages
     Philosophy Around the Web by Peter King
     Sean's One-Stop Philosophy Shop (click on heading at top left side of the page)
      Plato and His Dialogues
      The Radical Academy: Philosophy, Politics, and the Human Condition
      Philosophy since the Enlightenment by Roger Jones
      Utilitarianism Resources
      Blackwell Publishers' philosophy page
     Wadsworth Publishers' philosophy page
     Routledge Publishers' philosophy page
     The Philosophers' Magazine
     Philosophy News Service
     Philosophy Now, "a magazine of ideas"
     The Edge
     Pathways to Philosophy distance learning programs
           Ask a Philosopher (courtesy of Pathways, just above)
     Society for Philosophical Inquiry, begun by the author of Socrates' Cafe
     John Searle interviewed, defends "free speech, free inquiry, and the Enlightenment" (Reason, Feb. 2000)
     Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

    The Conservative Philosopher blog

    Philosophy Talk (Stanford U. audio programs)
            Philosophy Talk blog
    Philosophy Bites podcasts (Nigel Warburton)
            Podcasts of Warburton's book, Philosophy: The Classics
            Virtual Philosopher blog

    List of 172 of the most common logical fallacies, from the IEM
    Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies, informal logic
    The Fallacy Files, mostly informal logic
    Constructing a Logical Argument, informal logic
    Logic Primer, formal logic from Texas A&M
    Introduction to Logic (Oxford U.)

    Free online course from Carnegie Mellon U: Logic & Proofs

    The Critical Thinking Community is apprently based at Sonoma State U.
    Critical Thinking on the Web links page

    The Ism Book: A Field Guide to the Nomenclature of Philosophy

     Inside British History (BBC)
     BBC History TV & Radio Programmes archive
     Simon Schama, A History of Britain (BBC)
     British History resources on Britannia.com
     Law and Society in England 1750-1950 by Cornish & Clark (1989).  A landmark, in PDF.
     War of the Roses
     British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638-60
     The Oliver Cromwell Website
     Harvard historian Mark Kishlansky's lecture on Cromwell (video)
     Glorious Revolution of 1688
     Eighteenth Century Resources (Rutgers)
     Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution  (George Mason U.)
     Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

    The Legal History Project of Peter Hansen
        Juridicus (Hansen's blog)
    Legal History Blog  (Mary Dudziak, USC)
    Legal History Research Guide at U. of Chicago Library
    Legal History Links page at U. of Pittsburgh law library
    Guide to Legal History Resources on the Web from the U. of Texas law library
    British Legal History on the web from the U. of Cambridge Squire law library
    English Legal History Materials (Robert Palmer, U. of Houston)
    Sources of English Constitutional History (Stephenson & Marcham, 1937) from The Constitution Society

     Jurist subject guide to legal history
     American Society for Legal History
     Western Legal Tradition (interesting undergraduate course page at American U., from ancient civilizations to Hobbes & Locke)

     Ancient Legal Texts
     Roman Law Resources  (U. of Glasgow)
     Netserf: Medieval Law (contains texts by famous legal historians F.W. Maitland (under "Common") and H.S. Maine (under "Roman")
     Medieval Legal History

    The Internet History Sourcebook Project offers extensive material on ancient , medieval , and modern history.  You could probably re-teach yourself the basics of "Western Civ" with this site.  For an on-line Western Civ course taught by the same guy who runs the Sourcebook Project, go to The Shaping of the Modern World.  Other large Western Civ web sites include:
           Exploring Ancient World Cultures (U. of Evansville)
           World Cultures: An Internet Classroom and Anthology  (Washington State U.)
           Internet Classics Archive (MIT)
           Perseus Project  (Tufts)
           Electronic Resources for Classicists (UC Irvine)

    WWW Virtual Library History Central Catalogue

    The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies (Georgetown U.)
    Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (CUNY College of Staten Island)
    Another Sort of Learning, James V. Schall, S.J., Georgetown Dept.of Government
    Roman Catholic Political Philosophy (James Schall)

    Scholars' Guide to the WWW, by Richard Jensen, offers many history links among other subjects
    Hanover Historical Texts Project
    Best of History Web Sites
    20th Century History Books, a bookseller
    Directory of History Journals

    The St. Thomas More Web Site
        Robert Bork,  Thomas More for Our Season (First Things, June/July 1999)
    Sir Edward Coke
    Lord Mansfield
    William Blackstone
        his "Commentaries on the Laws of England" (1765-69)
        another version of the Commentaries
    Jeremy Bentham
         The Constitution Unit at University College London studies changes to the British constitution.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
          The Common Law (1881)
          The Path of the Law (1897)
 

XI.  LAW SEARCH ENGINES / LEGAL NEWS & GENERAL LAW SITES / LEGAL BLOGS

    GOOGLE SCHOLAR recently added "Legal Opinions and Journals."

     FindLaw
     Law.com ("first in legal news and information")
     Jurist ("legal news and research")
 
     Fox News Law Center
     CNN Law Center
     Court TV
    Wall Street Journal Law Blog

     FirstGov ("the U.S. Government's official web portal"-- see esp. the "Reference Center")
     U.S. Library of Congress -- Guide to Law Online: The United States
     Law Library of Congress
     FedWorld Information Network (from the U.S. Department of Commerce)

     WWW Virtual Library: Law
     Cornell's Legal Information Institute
     Voice of the Shuttle (Humanities Research): Legal Studies
     Hieros Gamos ("#1 legal research center")
     FedLaw (Center for Regulatory Effectiveness)

     Intute: Social Sciences: Law links (UK universities)

     Journal of Legal Analysis (Harvard Law School)
     The Legal Workshop (joint effort of a number of top-ranked law reviews)
     Law and Politics Book Reviews (archive of hundreds of short reviews)
     Legal Affairs magazine (discontinued)

     Glenn Reynolds's Instapundit is the mother ship of all legal blogs
     The Volokh Conspiracy is group blog of law professors
     The Buck Stops Here says Stuart Buck, a D.C. practitioner
     How Appealing is the work of Howard Bashman, another DC practitoner
     Southern Appeal is a group blog that includes me.
     Point of Law, ditto
     Overlawyered "chronicl[es] the high cost of our legal system"
     Legal Theory Blog from Professor Lawrence Solum of the U. of Illinois
     The Right Coast is a group blog consisting of six U. of San Diego law professors
     Professor Bainbridge teaches corporation law at UCLA
     Ideoblog is the work of Larry Ribstein, a U. of Illinois corporation law prof
     Hugh Hewitt is a Chapman U. constitution law prof; tends more to the political

     The Faculty Lounge is a group blog of law professors
 

XII.   "GREAT BOOKS" AND OTHER LITERARY / GENERAL REFERENCE DESK

    Samford U. Library research site  -- a very useful site for students with access to the Samford network -- offers a search engine that includes the Wall Street Journal, and the "Academic Universe" service of Lexis-Nexis (much legal material !)
    WikiPedia, "the free encyclopedia"
   Information Please Almanac  (includes encyclopedia & dictionary)
    Encyclopedia.com
    Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed. 2000-04)
    Internet Public Library
    Librarians Index to the Internet
    RefDesk.com
    Answers.com "online dictionary, encyclopedia, and much more"
    How Stuff Works

    Encyclopedia Britannica Concise
    The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition

    Access the Great Books  (Encyclopedia Britannica)
    The Great Ideas Program (also from EB, with many links)
    Center for the Study of the Great Ideas  (founded by Mortimer Adler)
    WGN Radio Extension 720 (recent books, hosted by Milt Rosenberg)
           Milt's File (his blog)
    College Great Books Programs (by William Casement, for NAS)
    Malaspina Great Books Home Page

    Bartleby.com: Great Books Online
    The Harvard Classics ("The most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time comprises both the 50-volume '5-foot shelf of books' and the the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction. Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century.")

    My page of literary links

    Project Gutenberg ("20,000 free ebooks")
    Great Books of the Western World
    Electronic Text Center
    Digital Texts Projects (Columbia U.)
    On-Line Literature Library
    On-Line Books Page (U. of Penn.)
    Eserver.org  (Iowa State)
    ReadPrint ("your free online library")
    The Literature Network ("online classic literature, poems, and quotes")
    WikiSource ("an online library of free content")

    LibriVox ("provides free audiobooks from the public domain")

    American Writers (C-SPAN)
    BookTV (C-SPAN2)
    Booknotes (C-SPAN)
    Wired for Books (Ohio U.'s literary audio site)
    Contentions, Commentary magazine's blog (the Friday feature, "Weekend Reading," is a "greatest hits" sort of thing)
    Between the Covers (National Review Online audio)

    NY Times Book Review requires free registration.  It includes first chapters of hundreds of books, here.
    Washington Post Book World
    Times Literary Supplement (UK)
    London Review of Books
    NY Review of Books
    The New Republic
    Arts & Letters Daily
    The Writer's Almanac  (NPR)
    The New Criterion
       -- their blog

     LitQuotes ("quotations from the great works of literature")
     Quoteland
     Random quotes from Mark Twain, WC Fields, Groucho Marx

    Norton Anthology of American Literature
    Norton Anthology of English Literature online
    Luminarium (medieval, renaissance and 17th century literature)

    Voice of the Shuttle (humanities search engine; UCSB)
    Intute is a big UK universities site, boasting "the very best Web resources for education and research," including Arts & Humanities links and Social Sciences links, blog and podcasts.

    Great map/satellite photo sites:
       Google Maps
       Yahoo Maps Beta
       National Geographic MapMachine

    Google Maps application using census and housing data (amazing)

    2010 Statistical Abstract of the United States (excerpts & tables)
    2000 Census   (official site)
      American Factfinder (census gateway, easy-to-use)
    StateMaster (hours of fun!)
    City-Data.com (mostly census data, but presented in very useful format)
    ePodunk (ditto, includes collection of old postcards)
    Social Science Data Analysis Network (Michigan) (includes CensusScope site)
    Social Science Data on the Net (UC San Diego)
    National Opinion Research Center (U. of Chicago)
    Rasmussen Reports (opinion polling)

XIII.  TEACH YOURSELF

    DIY U (subtitle: "Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education")

    Academic Earth -- "thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars" at Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Yale
    University Channel -- a Princeton-led consortium "makes videos of academic lectures and events from all over the world available to the public."
    Research Channel -- University of Washington-led organization that connects a global audience with more than 50 research and academic institutions.
    Fora TV -- Ambitious new video site "delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation."
    Big Think -- "a global forum connecting people and ideas"
    Big Questions Online -- from the Templeton Foundation

    Blog: The Do It Yourself Scholar

    Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson --Hoover Institution/National Review video)

    The Teaching Company -- "the joy of lifelong learning every day"
    MindPicinic -- do-it-yourself online courses