In August 2020, the Democratic and Republican parties held their conventions mostly virtually for the first time in history due to the coronavirus crisis. This week on We the People, we look back to past conventions and party platforms throughout history. Host Jeffrey Rosen and scholars John Gerring and Michael Holt explore the constitutional positions the parties have taken from America's founding to the Civil War era and beyond, diving deep into 19th-century party platforms to consider the evolution of the parties’ constitutional positions.
FULL PODCAST
PARTICIPANTS
John Gerring is Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses on methodology and comparative politics. He is the author of numerous books, including Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996.
Michael F. Holt is the Langbourne M. William Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is the author of six books, including the award-winning The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party (1999) and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the age of Lincoln (1992).
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
- National Political Party Platforms from the American Presidency Project
This episode was produced and engineered by Jackie McDermott with engineering by Kevin Kilbourne. Research was provided by Jake La Fronz and Lana Ulrich.
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