To understand the Declaration’s serious flaws and to clear up the confusion that surrounds the concept of rights to this day, we need to rediscover the original philosophy that gave this word so much prestige in the first place: the philosophy of individual rights.

They drive prejudice underground and let it fester. There's strong evidence that they may actually foster prejudice rather than reduce it.

But do you really understand it?

To some extent, you probably are, whether you realize it or not.

Since the immensely successful Free To Choose series on PBS in 1980, Bob and his teams at the Free To Choose Network have produced more than 500 hours of high-quality programming for broad distribution. He created the Stossel in the Classroom program, developing a network of high school teachers who were hungry for articulate and entertaining classroom material about freedom in everyday life.  He followed that up with the concept of izzit.org, an online education resource that now offers a library of 70 video-centric teaching units, daily current events lessons, and more, reaching more than 300,000 teachers. He also created The Idea Channel, a library of more than 200 video recordings of intellectual discussions with leading scholars, including Hayek himself.

He discusses why he supports FEE along with the importance of teaching others to care about freedom.

1. My Father, Lawrence W. Reed Sr., who instilled in me the importance of character and a willingness to challenge power and authority.

2. My economics professor at Grove City College, Dr. Hans F. Sennholz, who earned his PhD under Ludwig von Mises and gave me my life-long love of Austrian Economics.

3. My most important influencers from Real Heroes, and about whom I wrote chapters, would be Cicero, Thomas Clarkson and Frederic Bastiat.

4. Economist Henry Hazlitt, also a long-time FEE trustee and a personal friend. His classic Economics in One Lesson was profoundly important to me.

5. Leonard Read, whom I knew personally in the last seven years of his life.

6. The Sound of Music, which motivated me as a teenager to read voraciously in history.

7. More Than a Carpenter, by Josh McDowell, a short but very influential book on theology.

8. Ludwig von Mises, whom I never met, but whose books were required reading at Grove City College.

9. Joe Overton, my best friend of all time, Senior Vice President at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. His example of character and passion for liberty as well as his qualities as a good manager of people, left a deep imprint on me.

1. Great Myths of the Great Depression
2. Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy
3. Liberty as a Life Philosophy
4. Are We Rome? – Lessons from the Ancients
5. What Does the World Need More Of?
6. The Fall of the Republic
7. Of Meat and Myth
8. Witch-Hunting for Robber Barons: The Standard Oil Story
9. Why Principles Matter
10. Nicholas Winton: The Humblest Hero