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Acton Line

Alexander Salter on the American tradition of ordered liberty and sound money

May 5, 2021
34:08

Acton Line brings you a conversation with Dylan Pahman and Alexander Salter. Pahman is a research fellow here at Acton Institute and serves as executive editor of our Journal of Markets and Morality. Salter is an associate professor of economics at Texas Tech University, and research fellow of the university's Free Market Institute. 


In this episode they discuss the relationship between money and liberty. In his article, The American Tradition of Ordered Liberty, Salter writes that “The United States is an experiment both in revolutionary freedom and communal virtue. In other words, our public institutions reflect an ongoing quest for ordered liberty. Without understanding the sources of ordered liberty, we cannot come to grips with our own institutions.”


This “source of ordered liberty” is found in the four pillars that Russell Kirk writes of in his book, Roots of The American Order. The first pillar is Jerusalem where we derive our Judeo-Christian tradition. The second is Athens with our classical Greek intellectual tradition. Third, is Rome, giving us our Roman legal tradition, and the fourth is London — our English constitutional tradition. 


“Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London — these are the antecedents of ordered liberty in America. Each tradition left its mark on American social and political institutions, and continues to influence them today.”


The American Tradition of Ordered Liberty – AIER 


Money and the Rule of Law - Salter’s book


Free Market Institute  


Reading Russell Kirk – Acton Institute PowerBlog 


Sirico on Russell Kirk and populism – Acton Institute PowerBlog 


Video: Samuel Gregg on Russell Kirk’s contributions to conservatism 


The History of Freedom in Antiquity - Lord Acton


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