Rosamaria Bitetti spent the summer in the US attending various seminars. She wrote this article providing helpful and interesting tips for fellow Italian students. Translation by David Perazzoni:
August is coming to a close, and the moment is looming when the playfulness of the summer must give way to the usual drudgery of everyday life. Students are no exception to this rule, and they face the prospect of a long wait before the next, long-waited stretch of idleness. But a daring few associate the dog days with Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard, instead than to the hot bodies of assorted beach bunnies of either sex (well, almost): they are the young libertarians, willing to sacrifice their summers on the altar of political economy and law. These wild youth only need to take advantage of the generosity of several organizations that have the spreading of the ideals of liberty as their mission.
The choices available can fill every taste: there is the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEE), immersed in a lush green setting a few miles out of New York City, supporting since 1946 a solid education in the sphere of economics in the best Austrian tradition, and which is experiencing a renewed splendor under the leadership of the Ebelings; the Institute for Humane Studies (HIS), the brainchild of Frank “Baldy” Harper, offering the widest range of learning opportunities, with a dozen of seminars in different locations, an offshoot of which, the Institute for Economic Studies (IES)—now autonomous—offers similar venues for those who are unable or unwilling to leave Europe; the Cato Institute, recommended to those who want a greater stress on current policy issues; the Mises Institute, the most recent of the lot, pursuing the vision of a society without coercion. And, furthermore, the Independent Institute, the PERC, the Institute for Justice, and many others.
The rash youths that choose the spend their holydays immersed in the learning of liberty do in fact exist, and among their ranks are my boyfriend and myself: we thus decided to skip the usual summer dilemma (”Ibiza or Formentera?”) to fly in the United States with the aim of having a taste of the land that gave birth to the greatest experiment of a society based on individual rights and the peaceful and fruitful co-operation between market participants.
This enterprise required months of planning, days of preparation, and moments of sheer panic. The first step (a few months beforehand) consists in filling the relevant application form: this is usually made of an academic section, in which some information is required on the studies made by the applicant, as well as the name of a referrer teacher, and a second section in which the applicant is asked to describe his intellectual influences, his interests and his projects. This is the most important section for being accepted. Do not be discouraged if your official field of study is not social sciences: at a seminar we met a young lady whose main subjects were neurology and music! Further proof, if needed, that Americans are definitely more relaxed than Europeans under this respect. In contrast, the list of the readings that influenced your outlook is of fundamental importance, and must be accordingly filled with the utmost care.
The first seminar we followed was the “Liberty and Society Seminar” held by the IHS in Claremont, near Los Angeles. The week passed quickly, with the many lectures divided in five sections: law, philosophy, history, micro- and macro- economy. Discussion groups feature prominently in the curriculum, and are expected to ask a number of questions to the teachers once they have delivered their lectures. This particular seminar was on an intermediate level. Still the distinction of the lecturers was remarkable, as well as their willingness to engage in discussions with individual participants on every occasion, even late at night!
Thereafter we went to Auburn, a pretty town in Alabama, featuring tropical temperature and humidity levels and, most importantly, the presence of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. If you have the occasion to visit it, allow yourself a couple of days to browse its library, built up in the years thanks to the bequest of precious book collections as those of Robert LeFevre’s and Murray N. Rothbard’s, and in which one can easily discover fundamentally important works of genuine historical value.
In Auburn we followed two seminars. The first, “Radical Austrianism, Radical Libertarianism,” was held by Walter Block on a double track of economics and philosophy. The lectures were characterized by the careful arguments, the unassailable logic and the taste for provocation that distinguish this scholarly New Yorker. The “Mises University” is composed of seven very intense days of lessons on a range of subjects, mainly economics, but also methodology, law, history, and philosophy. This was undoubtedly the most advanced series we followed in our summer of study. Intense and intellectually stimulating, it is much more helpful for grasping the fundamentals of human action and economics than a whole university course.
This seminary is remarkable for its top-notch lecturers (Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Roger Garrison and Ralph Raico, to name just a few), the exhaustiveness and the consistent treatment of the arguments, and not least for the inspiring and friendly environment.
Our journey came to a close with a stay in the FEE, the oldest among the organizations that promote liberty and the free-market. Established on the advice of Ludwig von Mises, it is still located in the elegant villa with which it was endowed by the founder Leonard E. Read. This is one of the most engaging features of the programs offered by FEE: in each room, from the lecture hall to the dormitory, one can feel and breathe the history of the American movement for liberty since 1946.
We took part in the “Freedom University”, an entry-level course, but in Irvington advanced seminaries are also available such as the “Austrian Economics Seminar” and the “Young Scholars Colloquium.” Our experience endowed us with a hoard of knowledge, insights and ideas on which to survive in our forthcoming year of university barrenness.
Next year, forget in a drawer your bathing suit and pack your suitcase with the longing to investigate the ideals of liberty: you will experience the most rewarding summer you can imagine.
