How did Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman statesman and philosopher, influence the Founding generation, the Constitution, and American political thought? Join Scott Nelson, author of Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century; Benjamin Straumann, author of Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution; and Caroline Winterer, author of The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910, for a conversation exploring the political ideas of Cicero, his impact on America, and what we can learn from him today. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
Video
Podcast
Participants
Scott B. Nelson is research and strategy advisor at the Austrian Economics Center. His most recent book is Tragedy and History: The German Influence on Raymond Aron’s Political Thought. He has recently completed his next work Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century, co-authored with Matthew Edwards.
Benjamin Straumann is ERC Professor of History at the University of Zurich, research professor of Classics at New York University, Alberico Gentili Senior Fellow at NYU’s Institute for International Law and Justice. He is the author of several books, including, Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution, and is currently working on a five-year research project on Cicero’s thought as well as its historical legacy.
Caroline Winterer is Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies, and by courtesy, professor of classics and of education at Stanford University. She is the author of several books, including The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910, and most recently, Time in Maps: From the Age of Discovery to Our Digital Era.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Scott Nelson and Matthew Edwards, Cicero, Politics, and the 21st Century
- Scott Nelson, “Cicero’s Fragile Trinity,” Law & Liberty blog
- Benjamin Straumann, Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution
- Benjamin Straumann, "The classics and the Constitution: the smokescreen of republicanism and the creation of the Republic,” OUP Blog
- Benjamin Straumann, “The Origins of Political Order,” OUP Blog
- Caroline Winterer, The Culture of Classicism: Ancient Greece and Rome in American Intellectual Life, 1780-1910
- Caroline Winterer, The Mirror of Antiquity: American Women and the Classical Tradition, 1750–1900
- John Adams, Letter to John Quincy Adams (May 18, 1781)
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, On the Commonwealth and On the Laws
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Moral Ends
- National Constitution Center, The Founders' Library, “Cicero: The Tusculan Disputations”
- National Constitution Center, The Founders' Library, “Cicero: On Duties”
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, On the Orator
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Political Speeches
- National Constitution Center, The Founders' Library ,"Thomas Paine: Common Sense"
- John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of the United States
- John Finnis, "Natural Law Theories," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Juan Comesaña and Peter Klein, "Skepticism," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- National Constitution Center, The Founders' Library, "Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws"
- Plato, The Republic
- National Constitution Center, The Founders' Library, "Polybius: The Histories"
- Jamie Cohen-Cole, "The Creative American: Cold War Salons, Social Science, and the Cure for Modern Society," Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams (January 21, 1812)
- Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Old Age
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