{"id":60570,"date":"2020-10-29T10:57:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T14:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/?page_id=60570"},"modified":"2024-04-16T09:20:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T13:20:42","slug":"additional-presidential-great-lives-lectures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatlives\/additional-presidential-great-lives-lectures\/","title":{"rendered":"Additional Presidential Great Lives Lectures"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Great Lives<\/div>

Additional Presidential Great Lives Lectures<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
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Image that says \"Great Presidential Lives\"<\/a><\/figure>

Thank you for joining us for our 2020 Great Presidential Lives mini-series! If you would like to view additional Great Lives lectures featuring presidential topics, take a look at the selection below. To view more, visit our Archives<\/a> page.<\/p>

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John and John Quincy Adams<\/a><\/h3>

Speakers: Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein<\/h4>

The two presidents Adams have never been examined together, either as mutually supportive father-and-son historical actors, or as experienced men of the world with interconnected philosophies. History conveniently paints them as out-of-touch, each turned out of office by popularly cast southerners, Jefferson and Jackson; their rejection at the polls is explained in terms of their supposed resistance to a rising democratic spirit. The Problem of Democracy,<\/cite> our first major collaboration since Madison and Jefferson<\/cite> (2010), elaborates on the Adamses’ constitutional thought in favor of strong institutional checks in government (as a counter to the myth of an all-knowing popular will); their critique of democracy’s tendency to “dress up” select political men as popular celebrities: in their time, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson. Their concern about a moneyed oligarchy and their unwillingness to surrender personal political independence to the conforming character of the two-party system make them unique in the nation’s political life. The themes they embraced have clear implications for our times.<\/p>

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James and Dolley Madison<\/a><\/h3>

Speaker: David O. Stewart<\/h4>
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To reach his lifelong goal of building a self-governing constitutional republic, Madison blended his remarkable talents with those of five key partners. It was Madison who led the drive for the Constitutional Convention and pressed for an effective new government as his patron George Washington lent the effort legitimacy; Madison who wrote the Federalist Papers with Alexander Hamilton to secure the Constitution’s ratification; Madison who joined Thomas Jefferson to found the nation’s first political party and move the nation toward broad democratic principles; Madison, with James Monroe, who guided the new nation through its first war in 1812, and who delivered the reins of the government safely into the last of the Founders. But it was his partnership with Dolley that allowed Madison to conquer his natural reserve and reach the greatest heights. Their partnership was a love story, one that sustained Madison through his political rise, his presidency, and a fruitful retirement.<\/p>

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