Liberal Education, Commerce, and the Public Good: Toward a Philosophically Informed School of Responsible Freedom, Industry, and Civics explores the role of civic learning in higher education through the lenses of foundational thinkers like Locke, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, James Wilson, J.S. Mill, and Tocqueville. Featuring contributions from leading scholars of 17th-19th century political thought, this book addresses the current crisis in liberalism by distinctly drawing lessons from various theories of civic education in classical liberal political philosophy. As a growing number of scholars, leading state-level government actors, and members of civil society direct their attention to how a classical liberal and civic education may help restore America's liberal foundations and institutional guardrails, this book seeks to bridge the gap between two important, burgeoning bodies of scholarship that seek to redress contemporary liberalism's civic, cultural, spiritual, and material challenges. The volume concludes with contributions by directors and academic entrepreneurs who have successfully integrated classical liberal theories of civic education into their leading civic learning centers' academic missions while shining a spotlight on the challenges they currently face in promoting the study of responsible freedom at their respective institutions.  

Steven Pittz is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual as well as Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is the author of  Recovering the Liberal Spirit: Nietzsche, Individuality and Spiritual Freedom  (2020) and coauthor of  American Citizenship and Constitutionalism in Principle and Practice  (2022). 

Constantine Christos Vassiliou  is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He is the author of  Moderate Liberalism and the Scottish Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Hume, Smith and Ferguson  (2023).