The Jack Miller Center is pleased to announce that one of our Faculty members and Program Director of the Ryan Center at Villanova University, Dr. Colleen Sheehan, has been confirmed by the Pennsylvania State Senate as a member of the State Board of Education. She was nominated by Governor Tom Corbett. Please join us in offering Dr. Sheehan our sincere congratulations.
Read more about Professor Sheehan HERE
Villanova, Pa.—In recognition of Constitution Day, the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good at Villanova University will hold a Constitution Day Symposium Friday, Sept. 16, at the Villanova School of Law (3 p.m., Room 102). The event is free and open to the public.
In 2004 Congress passed legislation requiring that every institution of higher education receiving federal funds hold educational programming on or near Sept.17, in observance of Constitution Day. However, observance of this special day across the country has been minimal.
Earlier this year, the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History (JMC) launched a new initiative in partnership with leading universities and colleges across the United States to heighten the awareness of the need for education in the American Constitutional tradition. Professors were invited to submit proposals to fund Constitution Day events (lectures and panel discussions for students, as well as the public) on their campuses. Villanova University was selected along with 25 other universities and colleges.
“Especially this week – the tenth year anniversary of 9/11 – it is important that we think about the meaning of our Constitution and the freedoms and responsibilities that form the core of what it means to be an American,” said Colleen Sheehan, Director of the Matthew J. Ryan Center at Villanova University.
The Matthew J. Ryan Center of Villanova University will host Professor Philip Hamburger, a leading scholar in Constitutional Law and History and the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law from Columbia Law School. Professor Hamburger will lecture on the topic of “Censorship and Death”. Professor Amy Wax, Robert Mundheim Professor of Law from University of Pennsylvania Law School, will be the respondent. Following the lecture, the floor will be open for discussion with and among audience members.
The JMC’s Constitution Day Initiative is funded, in part, by the Andrea Waitt Carlton Family Foundation in Nashville, Tenn., with additional funding provided by the JMC and from the universities and colleges participating in the program.
“With a network of nearly 500 JMC Fellows, many of whom specialize specifically in the study and teaching of the American constitutional tradition, and with partner programs on 44 college and university campuses, the Jack Miller Center is ideally suited to take up the cause of building awareness of Constitution Day and having a major national impact on how it is observed on college and university campuses as well as in many communities across the country,” said Bill McClay, professor of history, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Professor McClay, a member of JMC’s board of directors, is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He was appointed in 2002 to the National Council on the Humanities.
“This project will be an on-going, national effort to deepen Americans’ knowledge and appreciation of the Constitution,” said Mike Ratliff, president of the JMC. “The distinguished scholars who have taken up this task should give all of us hope for our nation’s future.”
The Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good at Villanova University promotes inquiry into the principles and processes of free government and seeks to advance understanding of the responsibilities of statesmen and citizens of constitutional democratic societies. The Center honors the distinguished graduate of Villanova University and Villanova Law School, Matthew J. Ryan, who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for over 40 years. During his tenure in the House, he held the position of Majority and Minority Whip, Majority and Minority Leader, and from 1995 until 2003 he served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. For more information, contact the Center’s director, Colleen Sheehan, at colleen.sheehan@villanova.edu or 610-519-3851.
About Villanova University: Since 1842, Villanova University’s Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University’s five colleges – the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing and the Villanova University School of Law. As students grow intellectually, Villanova prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them.
Accepting Applications for Jack Miller Center Post Doctoral Fellowship at Villanova University The Ryan Foundation, which supports the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good of Villanova University, invites applications for an anticipated JMC Post-Doctoral Fellowship beginning in August 2011. The Post-Doc appointment is contingent on the position being fully funded. Salary is competitive; compensation will include University benefits and Research/Travel funding for the academic year. The successful candidate will have a teaching and research agenda focused on the rights and responsibilities of citizens in constitutional democracies. Subject areas may include Western Civilization, Political Philosophy, Statesmanship, Law, Ethics, and the principles of the American Founding.
The post-doctoral fellow will be expected to maintain an active research and scholarly agenda and teach a 1-1 course load in either the Villanova Center for Liberal Education, the Department of Political Science, and/or another related department of the University. The post-doctoral fellow may also be asked to assist in other Ryan Center programs. The fellow will be required to offer a public lecture during the academic year based on his/her research. Candidates must have documented evidence (including letters from their dissertation committee) that the Ph.D. will be in hand by May 10, 2011.
Applicants should send by regular mail a letter of application, current curriculum vitae, copies of graduate transcripts, a writing sample (chapter of dissertation or publication), syllabi and other evidence of teaching style and effectiveness, and three letters of recommendation to:
Dr. Colleen A. Sheehan
Director, the Ryan Center
Old Falvey 307
Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085.
Review of applications will begin May 1, 2011 and applications will be accepted until the
position is filled. The Ryan Foundation is an EO Employer and is fully committed to Access and Opportunity.
Contact: Colleen A. Sheehan, colleen.sheehan@villanova.edu
For further information on the mission and activities of the Ryan Center, please visit our website at:
http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/psc/ryancenter.html
In the first study that combines an in-depth examination of Madison’s National Gazette essays of 1791-92 with a study of The Federalist, Colleen Sheehan traces the evolution of
Madison’s conception of the politics of communication and public opinion throughout the Founding period, demonstrating how “the sovereign public” would form and rule in America. Contrary to those scholars who claim that Madison dispensed with the need to form an active and virtuous citizenry, Sheehan argues that Madison’s vision for the new nation was informed by the idea of republican self-government, whose manifestation he sought to bring about in the spirit and way of life of the American people. Madison’s story is “the story of an idea” – the idea of America.
Editorial Reviews
“the overall analysis is brilliant, and merits careful reading by anyone seriously interested in the ideas of our greatest political thinker.” -Jack Rakove
“This book constitutes the most important contribution to the scholarship on James Madison produced in recent memory. In it, Colleen Sheehan demonstrates that Madison’s ruminations on politics in the early 1790s and thereafter, and his activity as a politician in the early republic, need to be reinterpreted in light of his Auseinandersetzung with a group of late eighteenth-century French writers-including Mably, Moreau, Necker, Turgot, Condorcet, Chastellux, Dupont de Nemours, Le Trosne, Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Le Mercier de la Rivière, Volney, Mirabeau, Brissot de Warville, Barthélemy, and the like-who debated the significance of what Montesquieu had, in his Spirit of Laws, called communication, and who wrestled with the importance of a powerful phenomenon, more or less unknown in France until the second half of the eighteenth century, which they termed ‘public opinion.’” -Paul Rahe, Hillsdale College
“Sheehan’s insightful and incisive analysis of the thought of James Madison once again confirms for us his greatness as a political thinker and his importance as a proponent of popular republican government.” -Gordon Wood, Brown University
“Colleen Sheehan’s bold new book provides a corrective to the many myths of the Founding. It portrays James Madison, the father of the Constitution, as a man deeply concerned with the ideas of civic virtue, citizen character, and common purpose, albeit in the service of the truly republican principles of the Declaration of Independence.” -National Review
“….give us a handsome and worthwhile down payment on the more sustained analysis she promises. ” -Dr. Michael Zuckert
“Colleen Sheehan’s Madison is driven by an overarching concern: What would it take for this American population to become–and remain–a self-governing people? More was at stake than survival and prosperity. For Madison the new national community could flourish only if the people had good reasons for respecting themselves. Sheehan’s engaging account of America’s beginnings enlarges our understanding of the hopes and fears, successes and failures, not only of a notable man but of a generation of founders.” -Ralph Lerner, University of Chicago
In her excellent new study, Colleen A. Sheehan argues that James Madison is preeminent among the Founders in his insistence on the civic cultivation of public opinion.” -Richard M. Reinsch, The City Journal
“This well-written and engaging book situates James Madison as a spirited defender of popular government.” -George Thomas, Review of Politics
“…Sheehan’s book is a rich, well-written, and well-argued text on adison that any serious scholar of Madison and the founding of the United States must read.” -Richard K. Matthews, Journal of American History
“…Sheehan’s book is a rich, well-written, and well-argued text on adison that any serious scholar of Madison and the founding of the United States must read.” -Richard K. Matthews, Journal of American History
“…James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government is an informed and intriguing addition to the literature on the American founders. The book will appeal to fans of Madison and to scholars of American political thought and the American founding.”
Canadian Journal of Political Science Graham G. Dodds, Concordia University
“This is a wonderfully provocative and morally engaged argument…the overall analysis is brilliant and merits careful reading by anyone seriously interested in the ideas of our greatest political thinker.”
Political Science Quarterly, Jack Rakove, Stanford University
“This well-written and engaging book situates James Madison as a spirited defender of popular government…Sheehan has elegantly and artfully recaptured neglected and forgotten elements of Madison’s thinking that all serious scholars of Madison will need to confront.”
The Review of Politics, George Thomas
The Jack Miller Center wants to congratulate the members of our JMC network who have published a book length manuscript in the last calendar year. Few accomplishments are as meaningful and lasting for authors, and those who read them.
The list also is a demonstration of the broad intellectual interests of our network. Although many directly address America’s Founding and History, the list includes subjects and authors that compose the intellectual, historical, and political resources the American Founders drew upon as well as current events that are of interest to all of us.
Nathan Busch, Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Future of Non-Proliferation Policy, co-edited with Daniel H. Joyner (University of George Press, 2009)
Ross Corbett, The Lockean Commonwealth (SUNY, 2009)
Donald Critchlow, ed., Debating Conservatism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009), Politics and Hollywood (Routledge, 2009)
John Dinan, paperback edition of The American State Constitutional Tradition
Jonathan Dunn, From Schoolhouse to Courthouse: The Judiciary’s Role in American Education, co-edited with Martin West (Brookings Institution Press, 2009)
Robert Faulkner and Susan Shell, co-editors of American at Risk: Threats to Liberal Self-Government in an Age of Uncertainty (University of Michigan Press, 2009)
Michael Gillespie, paperback edition of The Theological Origins of Modernity
Allen Guelzo, Lincoln (Oxford University Press, 2009), Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas (Southern Illinois University Press, 2009)
William Hay, Lives of Victorian Political Figures, Part IV (William Bagehot) (Pickering and Chatto Publishers, 2009)
Louie Herbert, More than Kings and Less than Men: Tocqueville on the Promise and Perils of Democratic Individualism (Lexington Books, 2009)
Steve Kautz, The Supreme Court and the Idea of Constitutionalism, co-edited with Arthur Melzer, Jerry Weinberger, Richard Zinman (Penn Press, 2009)
Christopher Kelly, Rousseau on Women, Love, and Family, co-edited with Eve Grace (University Press of New England, 2009)
Harvey Klehr, co-author of Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (Yale University Press, 2009), The Communist Experience in America (Transaction Publishers, 2009)
Benjamin Kleinerman, The Discretionary President: The Promise and Peril of Executive Power (2009)
Robert Koons, The Waning of Materialism: new Essays on the Mind/Body Problem, co-edited with George Bealer (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Ralph Lerner, Playing the Fool: Subversive Laughter in Troubled Times (University of Chicago Press, 2009)
Paul Rahe, Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic (Yale University Press, 2009), Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect (Yale University Press, 2009)
Eric Sands, American Public Philosophy and the Mystery of Lincolnism (University of Missouri Press, 2009)
Brian Schoen, Fragile Fabric of Union: Cotton, Federal Politics, and the Global Origins of the Civil War (Johns Hopkins Press, 2009)
Colleen Sheehan, James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Susan Shell, Kant and the Limits of Autonomy (Harvard University Press, 2009)
Steven Smith, The Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss (2009)
Barry Strauss, The Spartacus War (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
Jeffrey K. Tulis, The Constitutional Presidency, co-edited with Joseph M. Bessette (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009)
Gordon Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford, 2009)
Michael Zuckert, The Anti-Federalist Writings of the Melancton Smith Circle, co-edited with Derek Webb (Liberty Fund, 2009).
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A Jack Miller Center Pathway Essay
By George Thomas
James Madison
Dubbed the “father of the Constitution” by the historian Charles Jared Ingersoll in 1825, James Madison resisted the title. Yet it is by this title that Madison remains best known. While biographies of the “Founding Fathers” continue to meet the public’s appetite —there have been new biographies of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton in recent years—books on Madison, especially those that break into the popular fold, tend to be historical studies of the early years of the Republic. Madison has become inseparable from the nation he helped bring into being. Indeed, when the late Marvin Meyers gathered together the first comprehensive one volume edition of Madison’s writings in the early 1970s, he titled it The Mind of the Founder. And what better way to get at the bookish Madison than by reading.
First published in 1971, but brought out in paperback by the University of Virginia Press in 1990, Ralph Ketcham’s James Madison: A Biography is the best one volume biography of Madison’s life. As an early editor of the Madison Papers when the project was housed at the University of Chicago, Ketcham had access to material that was not available to earlier biographers. (Material on Madison continues to come out from the University of Virginia Press under the editorship of J.C.A. Stagg.) Ketcham’s biography not only traces Madison’s career, it gives us a sense of the man. As Madison said of his early years in Virginia under the study of Donald Robertson, who introduced him to thinkers like Montaigne and Montesquieu, “all that I have been in life I owe largely to that man.” It also captures a side of Madison that is less rarely on display (including a portrait of the beautiful Dolley Madison, who was introduced to Madison by Aaron Burr, and has also come into her own with a recent biography A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor.) The slight and frail man dressed in republican black had an impish sense of humor and was a lively presence among friends.
This should come as no great surprise. Madison led the charge in revolutionary Virginia to establish religious liberty, was the most important mind at the Constitutional Convention, joined with Alexander Hamilton to offer the great defense of the Constitution in The Federalist, crafted the Bill of Rights, and was behind the creation of political parties that helped bring about what Thomas Jefferson dubbed “the revolution of 1800”—the first peaceful transfer of power in history. To be so influential, we would expect a certain amount of persuasive character. Witnessing Madison’s exchanges with the gifted orator Patrick Henry in the Virginia ratifying convention, John Marshall called Madison the most eloquent speaker of his age. And yet, it is this very sweep that has often led to charges that Madison was inconsistent and vacillating—a lesser figure who fluctuated between the pull of Hamilton and Jefferson. To follow Madison through this tumultuous period, one could do no better than Lance Banning’s The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic. Banning’s book has the great virtue of reconstructing Madison’s thought from Madison’s preoccupations. The result is a Madison that is at once a skillful politician and a great thinker—he is neither Jefferson’s, nor Hamilton’s second.
If Madison was a masterful politician, he has not been seen as a great president. He left office extraordinarily popular, but history has been stern. Madison’s temperate claims of executive power make for intriguing reading against such judgments. The best history of his presidency remains Henry Adams’s History of the United States During the Administrations of James Madison first published in 1890. Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams and great grandson of John Adams, has an overwrought sense of irony in his treatment of Madison. He is a New Englander who on occasion seems to think of Madison, like the first other four presidents who were not Adamses, as one of those damned Virginians. And, to be sure, many modern historians have offered a more rounded and sympathetic account of Madison’s presidency—even insisting the War of 1812, for all of its faults, helped sustain American independence for the long haul. Still, Adams’s great history is worth reading as it offers a detailed account of Madison’s presidency—coming in at over a 1,000 pages—and is itself one of the first great works of history written in the United States.
Madison lived beyond his contemporaries as the “last of the founders.” This from the frail youth who just after graduating from Princeton wrote that he did not expect “a long or healthy life.” Well, he lived until 1835 and witnessed the development of his handiwork for nearly another two decades. The nation returned to the issues of the 1780s and 1790s in debates over the national bank, the tariff, slavery and, most of all, nullification. Charges of inconsistency returned to haunt Madison and, a lifelong addict to politics and newspapers, Madison himself returned to the fray. Drew McCoy’s Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy takes up Madison the elder statesmen, weaving together Madison’s late career with his early career in a wonderfully illuminating fashion. In McCoy’s able hands, we get a finely textured history that also happens to be a deeper education in Madison’s thought and the nature of the republic he helped birth.
Above all, Madison is an original constitutional thinker. Jack Rakove’s Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution is about the ideas and interests that framed the Constitution, but it is written with Madison as its central figure. Rakove captures what it means to make a constitution that is intended to endure for ages to come, but also how this begins from historical problems. When it comes to original meaning and its current application, Rakove offers somewhat ambivalent answers. But, following Madison, Rakove turns to the right questions, which are much broader than our unfortunate preoccupation with the Supreme Court and constitutional law. There is almost certainly an important lesson in the fact that Madison, our great constitutional thinker, was not a lawyer.
If you do not have the time—or is it the virtue?—for a longer book, or want only one book on Madison, you might pick up Rakove’s very brief James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic. For the republican side of Madison, you might try Colleen Sheehan’s James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Government. It’s a bit academic, but is engaging and readable; it even ends with a tribute to that great Madisonian—Harry Potter. If you are more adventurous, read Madison himself. He is imminently readable. You might be surprised how much sense and logic is packed into his short essays, and how relevant they remain for thinking about our Constitution and our politics.
George Thomas is Associate Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and the author of The Madisonian Constitution (Johns Hopkins).
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Facebook Constitution Day Campaign
January 18th, 2012 - Please join us in preparation for the celebration of the 225th Anniversary of the Constitution of the United States.
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John Zumbrunnen Joins the JMC Constitution Day Steering Group
January 18th, 2012 - The Jack Miller Center is proud to announce that Professor John Zumbrunnen has joined the JMC Constitution Day Initiative Steering Group.
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