Educator Seminar: The Constitutional Convention

Even after stripping away the mythology that has persistently surrounded it, the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 remains one of the most remarkable events in political history. The Convention’s importance derives partly from the fact that its end result, the U.S. Constitution, has proven so enduring and influential. The Constitution is the oldest extant charter of national government anywhere in the world, and regardless of whether one regards it as a blueprint for political freedom or a “covenant with death” (as the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison would later describe it), it is difficult to dispute its impact on virtually every facet of American life. Rarely has a political document remained so deeply and immediately “relevant” for so long.

The Convention’s importance also stems from the fact that it was not at all clear in the summer of 1787 that the union of the thirteen states would persist indefinitely, or that republican government could succeed on such a large scale. Hence, James Madison declared matter-of-factly on the Convention floor that it was “more than probable we are now digesting a plan which in its operation would decide forever the fate of republican government.” This seminar will draw on a variety of primary sources from the period, above all Madison’s Convention notes, in an effort to understand the choices that were made—and, even more importantly, the arguments behind the choices that were made—as the framers created the basic framework for America’s government.

All attendees will receive a paperback copy of The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison.

About Dennis C. Rasmussen

Dennis Rasmussen is a Professor of Political Science and the Hagerty Family Fellow at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is also the director of SU’s Political Philosophy Program. His research focuses principally on Enlightenment political thought and the American founding.

He received a PhD from Duke University in 2005 and a BA from Michigan State University’s James Madison College in 2000. Before coming to Syracuse, he held positions at Tufts University, the University of Houston, Brown University, and Bowdoin College.

He is the author of five books, including The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought, which was shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award and named a best book of the year in The Guardian, Bloomberg, Project Syndicate, Australian Book Review, and Five Books; Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders, which was named a best politics book of the year in the Wall Street Journal; and, most recently, The Constitution’s Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America’s Basic Charter.

More information about Educator Seminars.