Equality of Permission

by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

Modern liberalism was first articulated two-and-a-half centuries ago, particularly in the Anglosphere, and most particularly in Scotland and Massachusetts. Ancient liberalisms there had been, though only rarely articulated so radically and so widely as in 1776 and after. In 1381 John Ball had asked, “When Adam delved, and Eve span, / Who then was the gentleman?” For this he was drawn and quartered. In 1685 the Leveler Richard Rumbold declared from his scaffold in Edinburgh that “there was no man born marked of God above another, for none comes into this world with a saddle on his back, neither any booted and spurred to ride him.” Then the hangman sprang the trap door.

Read the rest, by Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, via IQ’s Spring 2025 issue.