Longtime friend of the Summer Institute, Jeffrey Rosen, returns this year to offer a talk on his new book, The Pursuit of Liberty. Exploring the enduring tension between Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian visions of American democracy, Rosen considers how competing ideas about national power, democracy, the constitution, and the role of government have shaped the nation’s history.

Looking back across the founding era to today, he offers insights into how these two visions have influenced the development of American political life for the past 250 years. He also looks ahead, considering how this dynamic may continue to evolve and what it might mean for the future of the American experiment.