The Jack Miller Center will convene our second  Summer Institute, July 26 – August 7, in Chicago, Il. Our first Chicago Summer Institute will bring together some of the nation’s leading junior scholars. The program includes faculty mentors from the fields of Political Science, History, and Economics, as well as workshops focusing on academic career development. For more information or participant nominations, contact Emily Koons.

2010 Theme

Chicago

Liberty and Enterprise: The American Founding and the Birth of the Modern Commercial Republic

The American Constitution stands as one of the great achievements of modern philosophical and political thought.  There had been prior forms of free government in the West, from the Roman Republic, to the short-lived democratic city states of ancient Greece, to the constitutional monarchy of Great Britain.  The Framers were keen students of the strengths and weaknesses and triumphs and failures of earlier attempts to establish and perpetuate a free system of government.  Yet even as Founders readily acknowledged their indebtedness to the great thinkers and statesmen of the Western tradition, they also believed that they were creating something unprecedented, a “new order for the ages” – a new regime that was both a reflection of and a departure from its historical antecedents.  Nowhere was this departure more evident than in the Founders embrace of commerce and the free market.

For much of European history, commerce was viewed as a servile activity, something that occupied the lower classeAs, or “middling sorts”, but which was beneath the dignity of an aristocratic ruling class.  In establishing a new constitutional and commercial order, the Founders had to contend not only with past critics who doubted the practicality and wisdom of extending political freedom to ordinary citizens, but also with a substantial body of thinking which held that commercial activity and the pursuit of material gain undermined a people’s commitment to the public good.   Indeed, one of the unique features of the American Founding was not only that its leading figures defended both free government and the free market, but that they also believed that liberty and commerce, far from being incompatible, were mutually reinforcing features of life in a flourishing free society.

To be sure, the Founders themselves often disagreed among themselves on any number of issues regarding the constitution and economic affairs.  At this year’s summer institute we will engage the debate the Founders themselves engaged in.  What are the necessary elements of both free political institutions and a free market, and are they in fact mutually reinforcing or at times in tension with one another?  Does the pursuit of material gain seamlessly promote the public good, or is it at times in tension with the public good?  And what institutions and institutional restraints did the Founders envision would be necessary to manage such tensions and promote political stability, and economic prosperity, while protecting individual liberty?  Does a system of self-government and free enterprise depend on certain moral preconditions such as honesty, trustworthiness, a respect for the rule of law and a sense of fair play, and what is the origin of such virtues?  And has the great expansion of the state in the 19^th and 20^th centuries preserved individual liberty and promoted prosperity, or does it represent an unnecessary or even dangerous departure from the original vision of the Founders?

Program Goals

The Jack Miller Center seeks to advance the teaching of America’s founding principles and the broader traditions of Western Civilization on College Campuses around the country.  The Summer Institutes are an integral part of our overall mission.  Each summer institute brings together twenty-five faculty members and advanced graduate students from around the country for seminars, workshops and lectures led by many of our country’s leading scholars, educators and public intellectuals. Our goal at the summer institutes is to assist in the cultivation, support and professional advancement of the next generation of college and university professors.

Morning Seminars

Our seminars offer the most promising young scholars in the humanities and social sciences the opportunity to reflect upon and discuss the enduring ideas, issues and questions from the American past and the traditions of Western Civilization, as a means of deepening and enriching their knowledge of our history and institutions.  Led by our summer institute teaching faculty, the morning seminars allow for a robust and thoughtful discussion of the central ideas, thinkers, and texts from our history.  Each member of our summer institute teaching faculty will offer a combination of primary and secondary source readings, or original research, that explore different aspects of this year’s theme.  Participants will have the opportunity to engage the presenter and each other in a discussion of the day’s topic in an atmosphere of civility and intellectual freedom.  Morning seminars are designed not only to give the participants an opportunity to deepen their thinking concerning the central ideas of the American past, but also to develop new ideas for original research and fresh approaches to the questions that have long animated discussions of American society.  In addition, the seminars offer participants the chance to observe the teaching methods of some of the most respected scholars in higher education.

Afternoon Workshops

Our afternoon workshops are designed to assist faculty members with their professional advancement, with a particular focus on teaching, publishing, and securing tenure.  Members of our institute teaching faculty lead workshops focusing on the development of intellectually engaging courses dealing with the key ideas, themes, and events from the American past, in addition to leading workshops on effective teaching methods.  Other workshops, led by the directors of academic presses, focus on building successful book proposals and successfully navigating the editorial approval process.

Lectures

In addition to the seminars and workshops, each summer institute will feature a number of luncheon and dinner lecturers, delivered by leading academics, educators, political commentators and prominent public officials.

Each summer institute also offers our participants ample opportunities for informal discussion with our institute faculty and with one another, and time for reading, reflection and study.

Ongoing Support

In addition to the honorarium for attending the summer institute, Miller Summer Institute Fellows may be eligible to receive funds to conduct campus programming to further education in American Founding Principles.  New Miller Center Fellows can become eligible for our subsequent appointments as Annual Miller Center Fellows.  Miller Center Staff and its Academic Council are committed to assisting all Miller Fellows, whenever possible, with publishing, securing grants from public and private sources, recruitment of participants for on-campus programming, securing employment, and facilitating contacts and developing relationships with other faculty members and past Miller Fellows.