Specialties: American Political and Intellectual History, Political Philosophy

Dr. Ridpath, an associate professor of economics and intellectual history at York University in Toronto, Canada, writes and speaks on the history of ideas and their impact on social change. He has spoken at conferences about the central thinkers in Western history, the impact of their ideas on history, including the ideas influencing the Founding Fathers and early American history. As a specialist in Ayn Rand’s system of ideas, articles by Dr. Ridpath have appeared in The Objectivist Forum, The Intellectual Activist and Essays on Ayn Rand’s “We the Living”. Widely recognized for his lecturing skills, as well as for his public speaking and debating in defense of capitalism, he is a recipient of the prestigious award given by the Ontario Council of University Faculty Associations for outstanding contribution to university teaching. Dr. Ridpath was also a York University nominee for Canadian Professor of the Year. Now retired, he continues to write and speak throughout Europe and North America.

Books

• Why Businessmen Need Philosophy (contributing author)
• Essays on Ayn Rand’s “We the Living” (contributing author)
• The Abolition of Antitrust (contributing author)

Debates

• Debate 1984: Capitalism or Socialism
• Capitalism vs. Democratic Socialism
• Is Capitalism or Socialism the Moral System?

Lectures

• Adam Smith and the Founding of Capitalism
• Religion vs. Man
• Ayn Rand and the History of Individual Rights
• Ayn Rand vs. Karl Marx
• Rights, Reason and Reality
• The Morality of Capitalism
• Man’s Rights: Ayn Rand’s Historic Contribution
• Virginia, The Virginians and the Founding of America
• Ideas and Revolution
• America’s Heroic Saga
• Religion and Capitalism
• The Greatness of the 18th-Century Enlightenmen
• Individual Rights and the Founding of America
• This Hallowed Ground
• America Under Attack!

Op-Eds