This course examines the lives, character, political thought and political practice of two of the most influential American thinkers and statesmen in the twentieth century, viz., Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. We will pay close attention to their views of the Constitution, especially in light of their understandings of liberty and rights, democratic self-government, enlightened administration, and the character and responsibilities of the presidential office.
Instructors: Ronald J. Pestritto holds the Charles and Lucia Shipley Chair in the American Constitution and is Associate Professor of Political Science at Hillsdale College. He is author of Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism. Christopher Burkett is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ashland University. He has published on the American Founding and American foreign policy, and lectures on the Founding, the Enlightenment, and American social thought.