MACON – Mercer University's McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles will welcome Dr. Carl J. Richard, professor of history at the University of Louisiana Lafayette, for a public lecture on Sept. 10.
Dr. Richard, a leading scholar of early American history and U.S. intellectual history, will speak on “The Classical Roots of American Constitutionalism” at 6:30 p.m. in the Medical School Auditorium on the Macon campus.
This free event is made possible by the generous support of the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America's Principles and History, and is part of the University's undergraduate observance of Constitution Day, which is Sept. 17.
“We're very excited to be joined by Dr. Richard,” said Dr. Will Jordan, co-director of the McDonald Center and associate professor of political science. “He is one of the few historians of the American Founding who have revealed the important links between the classical world and the thoughts of the founders. In doing so, he has brought into clear view something that improves our understanding of the period.”
Dr. Richard has authored numerous books on the impact of Greco-Roman civilization on history, particularly American history. They include The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 1994), Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), The Battle for the American Mind: A Brief History of a Nation's Thought (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), Greeks and Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding Fathers (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), The Golden Age of the Classics in America: Greece, Rome, and the Antebellum United States (Harvard University Press, 2009) and Why We're All Romans: The Roman Contribution to the Western World (Rowman & Littlefield, 2010).
He earned his Ph.D. in history from Vanderbilt University.
“Dr. Richard is the first Center lecturer who will be giving both a public lecture and teaching our new 'America's Founding Principle' course,” said Dr. Jordan. “This is an exciting new chapter of the McDonald Center's programming.”
About the Thomas C. and Ramona E. McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles
The Thomas C. and Ramona E. McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles exists to supplement Mercer University's excellent liberal arts program with a redoubled commitment to the foundational texts and ideas that have shaped Western Civilization and the American political order.This focus on the core texts of the Western tradition helps to revitalize a cross-centuries dialogue about citizenship, human rights, and political, economic and religious freedom, thereby deepening the moral imagination and fostering civic and cultural literacy.
The McDonald Center's programming includes the annual A.V. Elliott Conference on Great Books and Ideas, faculty-student reading groups, a general education course on America's Founding Principles, summer Great Books programs for high school teachers and students, and undergraduate research fellowships. All programming is designed to enhance Mercer's longstanding role as a distinctive home of liberal learning, a place where serious students come to live the life of the mind and emerge more thoughtful and engaged citizens.
