Jason Riley: The Liberal State Against Blacks Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2016-06-30 | Jason Riley is a member of the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal and a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He has written Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders (2008) and Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed (2014). He is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 26, 2016.
Neil Rogachevsky on Israel’s Declaration of Independence Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-05-16 | Neil Rogachevsky on "Israel’s Declaration of Independence: The History and Political Theory of the Nation’s Founding Moment". Neil Rogachevsky is associate director and Assistant Professor at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva director and assistant professor at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, where he teaches and researches Israel studies and the history of political thought. He will speak to us about his recent book, co-authored with Dov Zigler, Israel’s Declaration of Independence. The History and Political Theory of the Nation’s Founding Moment (2023). He writes for Mosaic Magazine, Tablet Magazine, The Jewish Review of Books, among others. He received his PhD in history from the University of Cambridge in 2014. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 14, 2023
Mark Mills on The Energy Transition Delusion Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-05-16 | Mark Mills on "The Energy Transition Delusion". Mark P. Mills is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also a strategic partner with Montrose Lane (an energy-tech venture fund). Mills is author of the book The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and a Roaring 2020s (2021), and host of the podcast The Last Optimist. He is also author of Digital Cathedrals (2020), and Work in the Age of Robots (2018). His articles have been published widely, including in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA Today, and Real Clear. Mills has appeared as a guest on CNN, Fox, NBC, PBS, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2016, Mills was named “Energy Writer of the Year” by the American Energy Society. Mills served in the White House Science Office under President Reagan. Early in his career, Mills was an experimental physicist and development engineer at Bell Northern Research (Canada’s Bell Labs) and at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center on microprocessors, fiber optics, missile guidance, earning several patents for his work. He holds a degree in physics from Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 24, 2023
Hal Brands on Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-05-16 | Hal Brands on "Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China". Hal Brands is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies US foreign policy and defense strategy. Concurrently, he is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Widely published in many journals from Foreign Affairs to the American Interest, he writes a column for Bloomberg Opinion. He will discuss with us his latest book, Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China (2022), co-written with Michael Beckley, as well as questions regarding the war in Ukraine. His previous books include The Lessons of Tragedy: Statecraft and World Order (2019), co-authored with Charles Edel, COVID-19 and World Order (2019), co-edited with Francis Gavin, American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump (2018), Making the Unipolar Moment: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order (2016), and What Good is Grand Strategy? Power and Purpose in American Statecraft from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush (2014). Brands served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Strategic Planning from 2015 to 2016. He graduated from Yale University with a PhD, MA, and MPhil in history. He also received a BA in history and political science from Stanford University. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 3, 2023
Adam White on The Roberts Court and the Administrative State Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-05-16 | Adam White on "The Roberts Court and the Administrative State – Relearning the Virtues of Steady Administration". Adam White is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on American constitutionalism, the Supreme Court, and the administrative state. Concurrently, he codirects the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Adam White previously practiced constitutional and administrative law. He was a research fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an adjunct fellow for the Manhattan Institute. The author of a wide range of essays, book reviews, law review articles, and book chapters, White has appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, Commentary, The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Notre Dame Law Review. He is a regular contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation’s “Notice and Comment” blog, and for many years he was one of The Weekly Standard’s primary writers on constitutional law and the Supreme Court. He has a JD from Harvard Law School and a bachelor of business administration from the College of Business at the University of Iowa. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 24, 2023.
Chris Stirewalt on Looking Ahead to 2024 – An Analysis of the Nominating Process and the Media Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-05-16 | Chris Stirewalt on "Looking Ahead to 2024 – An Analysis of the Nominating Process and the Media". Chris Stirewalt is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he focuses on American politics, voting trends, public opinion, and the media. He is concurrently a contributing editor and weekly columnist for The Dispatch. Before joining AEI, he was political editor of Fox News Channel, where he helped coordinate political coverage across the network and specialized in on-air analysis of polls and voting trends. Before joining Fox News Channel, Mr. Stirewalt served as political editor of the Washington Examiner, where he wrote a twice-weekly column and led political coverage for the newspaper. He also served as political editor of the Charleston Daily Mail and West Virginia Media. Stirewalt wrote about his personal experience of the 2020 election in the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back (Center Street, 2022) and Every Man a King: A Short, Colorful History of American Populists (Twelve Books, 2018). Stirewalt is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he studied history. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 3, 2023
Fred Kagan on Ukraine: Whats Up With That? Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-01-12 | Fred Kagan, on “Ukraine: What's Up With That? Current Situation and Prospects” Frederick W. Kagan, author of the 2007 report "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq," is the director of AEI’s Critical Threats Project and a former professor of military history at the US Military Academy at West Point. His books range from Lessons for a Long War (AEI Press, 2010), coauthored with Thomas Donnelly, to The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805 (Da Capo, 2006). He, together with the Institute for the Study of War, releases a live Ukraine-Russia war tracker.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 28, 2022.
Graeme Wood on Liberalism and Despotism in the Middle East Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-01-12 | Graeme Wood, on “Liberalism and Despotism in the Middle East.” Graeme Wood is a National Correspondent at The Atlantic. He joined the magazine in 2006 after three years in Iraq as a journalist, hitchhiker, and deliveryman. Since then, he has written on diverse topics and from every continent. His 2015 cover story on ISIS, "What ISIS Really Wants," is the most widely-read story in the magazine's modern history. He is the author of a 2017 book on the Islamic State, The Way of the Strangers. He has also written for The American Scholar, Businessweek, The New Yorker, and Jane's Intelligence Review. He was the 2015-2016 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of Deep Springs College, Harvard University, and The American University in Cairo, he is a lecturer in political science at Yale University. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on December 2, 2022.
Leor Sapir on The Controversy over Pediatric Gender Medicine in the United States Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-01-12 | Leor Sapir, on “The Controversy over Pediatric Gender Medicine in the United States.” Leor Sapir is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. A driven researcher with a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College, Sapir previously completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard University. His academic work, including his dissertation on the Obama Administration’s Title IX regulations, has investigated how America’s political culture and constitutional government shape public policy on matters of civil rights. Sapir studies policy issues, homing in particularly on issues of gender identity and transgenderism. His inaugural essay in the Winter 2022 issue of City Journal explores a series of recent court rulings surrounding transgenderism, demonstrating how bad ideas translate from fringe academic theory into law and policy. Previous web pieces for City Journal have explored evolving athletic guidelines and media coverage surrounding transgender issues. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on November 4, 2022.
Michael Auslin on How to Lose Cold War II: Taiwan, the Balance of Power, and Political Equilibrium Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-01-12 | Michael Auslin, on “How to Lose Cold War II: Taiwan, the Balance of Power, and Political Equilibrium.” Michael Auslin is the Payson J. Treat Distinguished Research Fellow in Contemporary Asia at the Hoover Institution. A historian by training, he specializes in US policy in Asia and geopolitical issues in the Indo-Pacific region. Auslin is the author of six books, including Asia’s New Geopolitics: Essays on Reshaping the Indo-Pacific and the best-selling The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World's Most Dynamic Region. He is a longtime contributor to the Wall Street Journal and National Review. Auslin cohosts the podcast The Pacific Century with John Yoo, where they address developments in China and Asia. They discuss the latest politics, economics, law, and cultural news, with a focus on US policy in the region. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 21, 2022.
Joshua Katz on Names, Pronouns, and the Law Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-01-12 | Joshua Katz, on “Names, Pronouns, and the Law.” Joshua Katz is an American linguist and classicist who was the Cotsen Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University until May 2022, when Princeton fired him. Widely published in the languages, literatures, and cultures of the ancient world, from India to Ireland via Greece, Rome, and the Near East, he is interested above all in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European and in etymology, which he views as part of the history of ideas. He received his degree in linguistics from Yale, Oxford, and Harvard. Currently, he is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 7, 2022.
Greg Weiner on Whig Improvement and Constitutional Conservation Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2023-01-12 | Greg Weiner, on “Whig Improvement and Constitutional Conservation.” Gregory S. Weiner is the Interim President of Assumption College, as well as an Associate Professor of Political Science. He is the author of Madison’s Metronome: The Constitution, Majority Rule, and the Tempo of American Politics (2012); American Burke: The Uncommon Liberalism of Daniel Patrick Moynihan (2015); Old Whigs: Burke, Lincoln, and the Politics of Prudence (2019); The Political Constitution: The Case Against Judicial Supremacy(2019). Weiner is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where his work is focused on politics, American institutions, political philosophy, public policy, and moralism in political life. An expert in the political thought of the American founding, Weiner has published and lectured on such topics as the political thought of James Madison, the separation of powers, the presidency, and constitutional interpretation. This special event sponsored by the Jack Miller Center was presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on September 30, 2022.
Biennial Post-Election Analysis with Bill Galston and Bill Kristol, joined by Ramesh Ponnuru Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-11-13 | Bill Kristol and Bill Galston met for their sixteenth much-anticipated biennial analysis, offering the perspectives of two reflective political participants and shrewd observers, both of them experts at providing what might be called partisan objectivity. This year, they were joined by Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of National Review and Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Harvey Mansfield moderated.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on November 10, 2022.
James Piereson on The Great Society Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | James Piereson, on The Great Society. James Piereson is a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and president and trustee of the William E. Simon Foundation. During 1985–2005, he was executive director and trustee of the John M. Olin Foundation. Previously, Piereson served on the political science faculties of Iowa State University, Indiana University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Piereson’s articles have appeared in many publications. He is the author of several books, his most recent one being Shattered Consensus: The Rise and Decline of America’s Postwar Political Order (2015). Piereson holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. in political science from Michigan State University.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on May 6, 2022.
Yascha Mounk on why diverse democracies fall apart and how they can endure Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Yascha Mounk, on “The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.” Yascha Mounk is a writer, academic and public speaker known for his work on the crisis of democracy and the defense of philosophically liberal values. He is an Associate Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Mounk is a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Founder of Persuasion. The author of several books, Mounk will speak on his forthcoming book The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure (April 2021). Mounk received his BA in History from Trinity College Cambridge and his PhD in Government from Harvard University.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 22.
Matthew Continetti on the history of the American conservative movement Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Matthew Continetti, on “The Right: The History of the American Conservative Movement.” Matthew Continetti is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where his work is focused on American political thought and history, with a particular focus on the development of the Republican Party and the American conservative movement in the 20th century. A prominent journalist, analyst, book author, and intellectual historian of the right, Continetti was the founding editor and the editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon. He is also a contributing editor at National Review and a columnist for Commentary Magazine. He also appears frequently on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report” with Bret Baier and MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily” with Chuck Todd. He will speak about his forthcoming book The Right: The History of the American Conservative Movement (April 2021). Matt Continetti has a BA in history from Columbia University.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 15, 2022.
Diana Schaub on how Lincoln moved the nation Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Diana Schaub, on “His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation.” Diana J. Schaub is professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland, where she has taught for almost three decades. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where her work is focused on American political thought and history, particularly Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, African American political thought, Montesquieu, and the relevance of core American ideals to contemporary challenges and debates. She has contributed chapters to multiple books on Shakespeare, liberal education, women, and religion. Her most recent book is His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved the Nation (2021). Diana Schaub has a PhD and an MA in political science from the University of Chicago. Her BA in political science is from Kenyon College.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 1, 2022.
Nicholas Eberstadt on the demographics of Russia and China Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Nicholas Eberstadt, on “The Demographics of Russia and China.” Nicholas Eberstadt (’76) holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he researches and writes on demographics and economic development, and on international security in the Korean peninsula and Asia. Domestically, he focuses on poverty and social well-being. Eberstadt is also a senior adviser to the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). His latest book is Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis (2016). Eberstadt has a PhD in political economy and government, an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government, and an AB from Harvard University. In addition, he holds a master of science from the London School of Economics.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 25, 2022.
Shep Melnick on why school desegregation still matters Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Shep Melnick, on “Why School Desegregation Still Matters.” R. Shep Melnick (‘73) is the Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr. Professor of American Politics at Boston College and co-chair of the Harvard Program on Constitutional Government. He has written many articles on courts, agencies, and public policy, and his most recent book is The Transformation of Title IX: Regulating Gender Equality in Education (Brookings, 2018). He is currently completing a book on education and the civil rights state. He received his BA and PhD from Harvard, and taught at Harvard and Brandeis before moving to Boston College.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 4, 2022.
Scott Lincicome on the problems with economic populism Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Scott Lincicome, on “The Problems with Economic Populism.” Scott Lincicome is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in economic studies. He writes on international and domestic economic issues, including international trade; subsidies and industrial policy; manufacturing and global supply chains; and economic dynamism. Lincicome also is a senior visiting lecturer at Duke University Law School, where he has taught a course on international trade law, and he previously taught international trade policy as a visiting lecturer at Duke. Prior to joining Cato, Lincicome spent two decades practicing international trade law at White & Case LLP, where he litigated national and multilateral trade disputes and advised multinational corporations on how to optimize their transactions and business practices consistent with global trade rules and national regulations. Lincicome has a BA in political science from the University of Virginia and a JD from the university’s School of Law.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on December 10, 2021.
Wesley Yang on the Successor Ideology in power Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Wesley Yang, on “The Successor Ideology in Power.” Wesley Yang is an author and essayist, as well as an arresting and original tweeter. He studied history at Rutgers University and in 2008 made a splash with the publication of “The Face of Seung-Hui Cho,” an essay on the perpetrator of Virginia Tech’s mass shooting. His first book, The Souls of Yellow Folk (2018), a collection of previously published essays, was selected as notable book of the year by the New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post, as well as one of the best books of the year by The Spectator and Publishers Weekly. Yang spontaneously (in a tweet) coined the term “Successor Ideology” in 2019 to describe “the peculiar species of authoritarian utopianism sweeping through the ruling institutions of American life.”Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 29, 2021.
Carole Hooven on her new book “T: The Story of the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-06-20 | Carole Hooven, on her new book “T: The Story of the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us.” Carole Hooven teaches in and co-directs the undergraduate program in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. She earned her BA in psychology at Antioch College and her PhD at Harvard, researching sex differences and testosterone, and has taught there ever since. She has received numerous teaching awards, and her Hormones and Behavior class was named one of the Harvard Crimson’s “Top Ten tried and true.” Her work has been featured in publications including Time Magazine, Slate, New York Post, and she has discussed it on numerous podcasts recently, including Joe Rogan’s, Andrew Sullivan’s, Bari Weiss’s, and Blocked and Reported. Recently she has been involved in disagreements about language and science teaching. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 15, 2021.
Paul Cantor Tribute Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2022-04-21 | On April 20th, 2022 the Program on Constitutional Government hosted a gathering to celebrate the life and work of the great literary critic, professor of English, and lover of the arts Paul Cantor (October 25, 1945 - February 25, 2022). The friends and students of Paul's who gave short speeches are John Briggs, Mark Blitz, Bill Kristol, Peter Hufnagel, Michael Moses, Douglas Hoffman, Andy Zwick, and Harvey Mansfield.
Rita Koganzon on Liberal Homeschooling vs. Republican Public Schools Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2021-05-13 | Rita Koganzon on “Hating School: The Liberal Tradition in American Education.” Rita Koganzon received her PhD in political science from Harvard in 2016, and her BA in history from the University of Chicago in 2007. She is the associate director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy and Assistant Professor of Politics (General Faculty) at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the themes of education, childhood, authority, and the family in historical and contemporary political thought, and her work has been published in the American Political Science Review, the Review of Politics, and the History of Education Quarterly, as well as in several edited volumes. She also contributes book reviews and essays to the Hedgehog Review, National Affairs, The Point, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. Her first book, Liberal States, Authoritarian Families: Childhood and Education in Liberal Thought (forthcoming from Oxford University Press), examines the justifications for authority over children from Jean Bodin to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Her current book project focuses on the topic of her talk.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 30, 2021.
Jonathan Marks on a Conservative Case for Liberal Education Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2021-05-13 | Jonathan Marks on his new book, “Let’s Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education.” Jonathan Marks is Professor of Politics at Ursinus College. He is also the author of Perfection and Disharmony in the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His journal articles are supplemented by political writings for Commentary and the former Weekly Standard. His BA and PhD are from the University of Chicago.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 23, 2021.
Edward Conard on the Economics of Inequality in High-Wage Economies Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2021-05-13 | Edward Conard, on “The Economics of Inequality in High-Wage Economies.” Ed Conard is the author of two bestselling books: The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class (2016) and Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong (2012); he is a contributor to Oxford University Press’ United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality (2020). He is an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, he was a founding partner of Bain Capital, where he worked closely with his friend and colleague, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. His book Unintended Consequences was featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine and went on to become a New York Times top ten non-fiction bestseller. Conard has made over 250 television appearances in which he has debated leading economists including Greg Mankiw, Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz, Alan Krueger, Austan Goolsbee, and Jared Bernstein, journalists, and politicians. Conard has a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School and a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the University of Michigan.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 16, 2021.
Peter Berkowitz on the State Department and the China Challenge Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2021-05-13 | Peter Berkowitz on "Securing Freedom: The State Department and the China Challenge." Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In 2019-2021, he served as the Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, executive secretary of the department's Commission on Unalienable Rights, and senior adviser to the Secretary of State. He is a 2017 recipient of the Bradley Prize. He serves as dean of studies for The Public Interest Fellowship, and teaches for the Tikvah Fund. He is the author and editor of many books, among them Constitutional Conservatism: Liberty, Self-Government, and Political Moderation (Hoover Institution Press, 2013); Israel and the Struggle over the International Laws of War (Hoover Institution Press, 2012); Virtue and the Making of Modern Liberalism (Princeton University Press, 1999); and Nietzsche: The Ethics of an Immoralist (Harvard University Press, 1995); Renewing the American Constitutional Tradition (Hoover Institution Press, 2014); Future Challenges in National Security and Law (Hoover Institution Press, 2010). He is a contributor at RealClearPolitics, and has written hundreds of articles, essays and reviews on a range of subjects for a variety of publications, including The American Interest, the American Political Science Review, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Claremont Review of Books, Commentary, First Things, and the London Review of Books. He taught constitutional law and jurisprudence at George Mason University and political philosophy in the government department at Harvard. He holds a JD and a PhD in political science from Yale University; an MA in philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and a BA in English literature from Swarthmore College.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 12, 2021.
Sean Wilentz on Anglo-American Origins of Atlantic Anti-Slavery Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2021-05-13 | Sean Wilentz on "Anglo-American Origins of Atlantic Anti-Slavery.” Sean Wilentz is the Davis Professor of History at Princeton. He received his PhD from Yale and his BA from Columbia. Among his books are Chants Democratic, which won several national prizes; The Kingdom of Matthias; The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (awarded the Bancroft Prize and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.) His most recent study, No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, based on his Nathan I. Huggins Lectures at Harvard, was the recipient of the annual Thomas A. Cooley Book Prize for the best book on the Constitution. He has written some 400 articles and is currently at work on The Triumph of American Antislavery, a companion volume to The Rise of American Democracy, which will offer a comprehensive political history of the antislavery movement from its seventeenth-century origins to the eradication of slavery in 1865.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 26, 2021.
Scott Yenor on The Recovery of Family Life Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2021-05-13 | Scott Yenor, on “The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies.” Scott Yenor is a Professor of Political Science at Boise State University, where he teaches political philosophy. He is the author of articles on David Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment, presidential power, literature and politics. He is the author of Family Politics: The Idea of Marriage in Modern Political Thought, as well as The Recovery of Family Life: Exposing the Limits of Modern Ideologies (2020).Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 19, 2021.
Panel Discussion on “The Tyranny of Merit.” Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2021-05-13 | A Panel Discussion with Michael Sandel, Christopher Caldwell, and Sarah Gustafson on “The Tyranny of Merit.”Michael J. Sandel is the Bass Professor of Government at Harvard. His writings—on justice, ethics, democracy, and markets—have been translated into 27 languages. His course “Justice” is the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and on television. His books include What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets; Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?; The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering; Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics; Democracy’s Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy; and Liberalism and the Limits of Justice.Christopher Caldwell (’83) is an author and journalist. He is a fellow at the Claremont Institute and writes frequently for The Wall Street Journal, The Claremont Review of Books, and he is a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. His books include The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties (2020) and Reflections On the Revolution in Europe (2009).Sarah Gustafson is a graduate student in the Harvard Government Department, writing her dissertation on Tocqueville’s understanding of charity.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 12, 2021.
Col. Suzanne Nielsen on Contemporary Challenges in American Civil-Military Relations Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Col. Suzanne Nielsen, on “Contemporary Challenges in American Civil-Military Relations?” Suzanne Nielsen is a Professor of Political Science and the head of the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, and a Colonel in the United States Army. An intelligence officer by background, she spent tours in Germany, the Balkans, Korea, and Iraq. She served on the personal staff of the Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq, and she has also been a Special Assistant to the Commander, U.S. Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency. Her research interests include military organizations, civil-military relations, and cyber policy and strategy. Her most recent book, American National Security, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2018. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy with a B.S. in political science, she holds a masters degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and is an alumna of the National War College. She also holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. She serves on the governing council of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on December 11, 2020.
Coleman Hughes on The Case for Color-Blindness Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Coleman Hughes, on “The Case for Color-Blindness.” Coleman Hughes is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal, where his writing focuses on race, public policy, and applied ethics. Coleman’s writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Quillette, The City Journal and The Spectator. He has appeared on many podcasts, including The Rubin Report, Making Sense with Sam Harris, and The Glenn Show. In June 2019, he testified before the U.S. Congress. Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Coleman briefly attended the Juilliard School to study trombone before dropping out to pursue a career as an independent jazz/hip-hop artist. Shortly thereafter, Coleman discovered a passion for applied ethics and public policy at Columbia University, where he graduated with a B.A. in philosophy.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on December 4, 2020.
Molly Brigid McGrath on Social Justice Rights: Sacrificial Politics and Sacred Victims Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Molly Brigid McGrath, on “Social Justice Rights: Sacrificial Politics and Sacred Victims.” Molly McGrath is associate professor of philosophy at Assumption College. She received her MA and PhD in philosophy from Catholic University. She has published numerous articles on phenomenology and other philosophic subjects. She is also a movie and cultural critic and has published wonderful reviews and essays in Law and Liberty, as well as other publications.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 30, 2020.
Andrew Sullivan on Whats Next? A View of the Election Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Andrew Sullivan, on “What's Next? A View of the Election.” Andrew Sullivan is an American-British author. He’s an Oakeshott conservative with a Harvard PhD in government, a former editor at The New Republic and the author or editor of six books, including Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality (1996). His political blog “The Daily Dish”, founded in 2000, was one of the very first political blogs. He later moved it to various publishing platforms, including Time, The Atlantic,and The Daily Beast, and finally a subscription-based format. Sullivan resigned from New York Magazine in July 2020 and has since started a new blog, “The Weekly Dish.”Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 23, 2020
Jack Goldsmith on After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Jack Goldsmith, on “After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.” Jack Goldsmith is the Henry L. Shattuck Professor at Harvard Law School, co-founder of Lawfare, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Before coming to Harvard, Professor Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel from 2003-2004, and Special Counsel to the Department of Defense from 2002-2003. He is the author of, among other books, The Terror Presidency, Power and Constraint, Who Controls the Internet, as well as, In Hoffa’s Shadow: A Stepfather, a Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth. His most recent book, After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency, co-authored with Bob Bauer, just came out. Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on November 13, 2020.
Stephen P. Rosen on American Foreign Policy Today Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Stephen P. Rosen, on “American Foreign Policy Today.” Stephen Rosen is the Beton Michael Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs at Harvard. He was the civilian assistant to the director, Net Assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Political-Military Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council, and a professor in the Strategic Department at the Naval War College. He participated in the President's Commission on Integrated Long Term Strategy, and in the Gulf War Air Power Survey sponsored by the Secretary of the Air Force. He has published articles on ballistic missile defense, the American theory of limited war, and on the strategic implications of the AIDS epidemic, and wrote the book, “Winning the Next War: Innovation and the Modern Military” which won the 1992 Furniss Prize for best first book on national security affairs. Other books are Societies and Military Power: India and its Armies (1995) and War and Human Nature (2004). He was Master of Winthrop House from 2003 to 2009.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on September 25, 2020.
Howard Husock on the Moral Basis of Alleviating Poverty Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Howard Husock, on “The Moral Basis of Alleviating Poverty.” Howard Husock is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. A City Journal contributing editor, he is the author of Who Killed Civil Society? The Rise of Big Government and Decline of Bourgeois Norms. From 1987 through 2006, Husock was director of case studies in public policy and management at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, New York Times, and many other publications. A former broadcast journalist and documentary filmmaker for WGBH Boston, his work there won three Emmy Awards, including a National News and Documentary Emmy (1982).Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 6, 2020.
Oren Cass on a More Populist Conservatism Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-12-23 | Oren Cass, on “A More Populist Conservatism.” Oren Cass is an author and a political analyst whose 2018 book The Once And Future Worker. A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America has received high praise. Cass was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where his work on strengthening the labor market addressed issues ranging from the social safety net and environmental regulation to trade and immigration to education and organized labor. He also writes extensively on the nature and implications of climate change and on the process of formulating and evaluating public policy. Cass has written for publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, National Affairs, and National Review. He regularly testifies before Congress. He earned a B.A. in political economy from Williams College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 21, 2020.
2020 Post-Election Round Up Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-11-07 | Post-Election Roundup with Bill Kristol and Bill Galston, joined by James Ceaser. Bill Kristol and Bill Galston met for their fifteenth much-anticipated biennial debate, offering the perspectives of two reflective political participants and shrewd observers, both of them experts at providing what might be called partisan objectivity. This year, they were joined by Jim Ceaser of the University of Virginia, a seasoned expert in American party politics.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on November 5, 2020.
Ben Ginsberg on the 2016 and 2018 Election: Blip or Paradigm Shift? Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-01-07 | Ben Ginsberg on “The 2016 and 2018 Election: Blip or Paradigm Shift?” Ben Ginsberg is a nationally known political law advocate with 30 years of experience representing participants in the political process. He represents them on a variety of election law and regulatory issues, including those involving federal and state campaign finance laws, ethics and gifts rules, pay-to-play laws, election administration, government investigations, redistricting, communications law, and election recounts and contests. He has served as national counsel to the Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns in the 2004 and 2000 election cycles and played a central role in the 2000 Florida recount. In 2012 and 2008, he served as national counsel to the Romney for President campaign.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on December 6, 2019.
Stephen W. Smith on Young Africa’s Scramble For Old Europe Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-01-07 | Stephen W. Smith on “Young Africa’s Scramble For Old Europe.” Stephen W. Smith is a Professor of the Practice of African and African American Studies at Duke University. He holds a PhD in semiotics from Berlin’s Free University. The deputy editor of the foreign desk at Le Monde for five years and, previously, the Africa editor at Libération for twelve years, he had worked as a roving correspondent in West and Central Africa for Reuters news agency and Radio France International (RFI). He is the (co-)author of sixteen books, of country reports (Nigeria, Central African Republic) for the International Crisis Group, and a consultant for the UN and other international bodies. He has widely contributed to many publications and writes regularly for The London Review of Books. He is the author The Scramble for Europe: Young Africa On Its Way to the Old Continent (2019).Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on November 8, 2019.
Anthony Kronman on The Assault on American Excellence Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-01-07 | Anthony Kronman on “The Assault on American Excellence.” Anthony T. Kronman is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Formerly Dean, Kronman now teaches contracts, bankruptcy, jurisprudence, social theory, and professional responsibility. Among his books are Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life; Confessions of a Born-Again Pagan, and, most recently, The Assault on American Excellence. Kronman received his B.A. from Williams and a Ph.D. in Philosophy and J.D. from Yale.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on November 1, 2019.
Aaron Friedberg on The Rise of China and the Strategic Threat to the US Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-01-07 | Aaron Friedberg on “The Rise of China and the Strategic Threat to the US.” Aaron L. Friedberg (’78), who got his PhD from the Harvard Government Department, is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, and co-director of the Woodrow Wilson School’s Center for International Security Studies. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a Senior Advisor to the National Bureau of Asian Research. Friedberg is the author of, among other books, A Contest for Supremacy: China, America and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia, Beyond Air-Sea Battle: The Debate Over U.S. Military Strategy in Asia, and co-editor (with Richard Ellings) of three volumes in the National Bureau of Asian Research’s annual “Strategic Asia” series. Friedberg’s articles and essays have appeared in a number of publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He served from June 2003 to June 2005 as Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs in the office of the Vice President. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 25, 2019.
Walter Russell Mead on The Information Economy and Global Revolution Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-01-07 | Walter Russell Mead on “The Information Economy and Global Revolution.” Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College, and the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal. From 1997 to 2010, Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World, which received the Lionel Gelber Award for best book in English on international relations in 2002, and God and Gold: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World. In 2012, the Foreign Policy Research Institute awarded him its Benjamin Franklin Prize for his work in the field of American foreign policy. Mead writes on a wide variety of subjects ranging from international affairs to religion, politics, culture, education and the media. His next book, The Arc of A Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People will be published by Knopf in 2021.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on October 4, 2019.
Michael Lewis on Lessons from the Notre Dame Fire Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2020-01-07 | Michael Lewis on “Lessons from the Notre Dame Fire.” Lewis is the Faison-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art History at Williams College. A critic of architecture, he is the author of numerous essays and reviews in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Commentary, New Criterion, Architectural Record, Chronicle of Higher Education, and other publications. He is the author of, among others, Frank Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind (2001), The Gothic Revival (2002), American Art and Architecture (2006), and the prize-winning August Reichensperger: The Politics of the German Gothic Revival (1993). His research interests include architectural theory, utopian and communal societies, and the nature of creativity.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on September 13, 2019.
Lorraine Pangle on the quarrel of Plato and Homer Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2019-05-28 | Lorraine Pangle on “Plato vs. Homer: The Old Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry.” Lorraine Pangle is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin where she teaches ancient, early modern, and American political philosophy, with special interests in ethics, the philosophy of education, and problems of justice and moral responsibility. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Earhart Foundation. Her publications include Virtue is Knowledge: The Moral Foundations of Socratic Political Philosophy (University of Chicago Press, 2014), The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin (Johns Hopkins, 2007), and Aristotle and the Philosophy of Friendship (Cambridge, 2003).Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 25, 2019.
Amy Wax, on the perilous quest for equal results in academia Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2019-05-28 | Amy Wax, on “The Perilous Quest for Equal Results in Academia.” Amy Wax is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Wax has published widely in law journals, addressing liberal theory and welfare work requirements as well as the economics of federal disability laws. Current works in progress include articles on same-sex marriage, disparate impact theory and group demographics, rational choice and family structure, and the law and neuroscience of deprivation. Her most recent book is Race, Wrongs, and Remedies: Group Justice in the 21st Century (Hoover Institution Press/Rowman & Littlefield, 2009). As an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wax argued 15 cases before the United States Supreme Court.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 26, 2019.
Glenn Loury & John McWhorter, on the race debate in America today Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2019-05-28 | Glenn Loury and John McWhorter, on “The ‘Race Debate’ in America Today.” Glenn C. Loury is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Brown University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. On top of his scholarly publications, Loury has published over 200 essays and reviews in journals of public affairs in the U.S. and abroad. Loury’s books include One by One, From the Inside Out: Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America (The Free Press); The Anatomy of Racial Inequality (Harvard University Press, 2002); and Race, Incarceration and American Values (M.I.T. Press, 2008). Glenn Loury is the host of “The Glenn Show” on bloggingheads.tv, where his friend John McWhorter is a frequent guest.John McWhorter is an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University. McWhorter is an author of more than a dozen books including The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language (Harper Perennial, 2003); Losing the Race: Self Sabotage in Black America (Avery, 2009); and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English (Harper Perennial, 2001). John McWhorter has his own podcast on language called “Lexicon Valley.”Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on April 12, 2019.
Michael Strain on how the American Dream is not dead Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2019-05-28 | Michael Strain, on: “The American Dream Is Not Dead.” Michael R. Strain is the John G. Searle Scholar and director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He oversees the Institute’s work in economic policy, financial markets, poverty studies, technology policy, energy economics, health care policy, and related areas. Before joining AEI, Dr. Strain worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the US Census Bureau and in the macroeconomics research group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 29, 2019.
Tamar Jacoby on restoring the dignity of the working class Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2019-05-28 | Tamar Jacoby, on “Restoring the Dignity of the Working Class.” Tamar Jacoby is president of Opportunity America, a Washington-based nonprofit working to promote economic mobility. A former journalist and author, she was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a senior writer and justice editor at Newsweek and, before that, the deputy editor of the New York Times op-ed page. Jacoby’s articles have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Weekly Standard, and Foreign Affairs. She is the author of Someone Else’s House: America’s Unfinished Struggle for Integration and editor of Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New Immigrants and What It Means to Be American. Jacoby holds a B.A. from Yale University.Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on March 8, 2019.
Rita Koganzon on sex, freedom and education in Rousseaus “Emile Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard 2019-05-28 | Rita Koganzon on sex, freedom and education in Rousseau's “Emile”Rita Koganzon on "Sophie Isn't Oppressed: Sex, Freedom and Education in Rousseau's Emile." Rita Koganzon is the associate director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy and a Lecturer in the Politics department at the University of Virginia. She received her PhD in political science from Harvard in 2016, and her BA in history from the University of Chicago in 2007.Rita Koganzon: "Book V of Emile, which describes the education of women, has largely been read as both Rousseau’s most complete and straightforward statement about the nature and capacities of women, and as a misogynistic statement at that. But if we recall that Emile is at least in part a response to Locke's book on education, and we look closely at Rousseau's recommendations for the education of girls, we discover that they are uncannily similar to Locke's proposed curriculum for boys. This paper re-examines the relationship between Books I and V and the rest of Emile, and argues that Sophie represents both the practical strengths and philosophical weaknesses of Lockean pedagogy, while Emile's education is a philosophical correction to Lockean pedagogy that is, ultimately, impracticable.”Presented by the Program on Constitutional Government on February 7, 2019.
