In this special Constitution Day episode, author William Magnuson discusses his latest book, The Just and the Good: How Law Made the Western World, which is a sweeping tour of the history of the law. He explores how the pillars of the rule of law were built—from the courts of ancient Athens to the United States Constitution, to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement. Thomas Donnelly, lead scholar at the National Constitutional Center, moderates.
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This episode was produced and mixed by Bill Pollock. With production support from Charles Sahm. Research was provided by Anna Salvatore and Tristan Worsham.
Participants
William Magnuson is a professor at Texas A&M Law School. He was formerly a journalist with The Washington Post and the Associated Press. He is the author of For Profit: A History of Corporations and Blockchain Democracy: Technology, Law, and the Rule of the Crowd.
Thomas Donnelly is lead scholar at the National Constitution Center and a law professor at the University of Richmond. Prior to joining the Center in 2016, he served as counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, as a Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, and as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Ambro on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Additional Resources
- William Magnuson, The Just and the Good: How Law Made the Western World (2026)
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