The lecture is planned for 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Brad. D. Smith Foundation Hall and is free and open to the public.
Isenberg is the author of the highly-regarded New York Times bestseller White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, published in 2016. Her lecture with Burstein will focus on the subject of their new book, The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality, scheduled for release this month.
As Burstein has pointed out, John and John Quincy Adams have rarely if ever been examined together, either as mutually supportive father-and-son historical players, or as experienced public figures with interconnected philosophies. History has painted them as out of touch, each having been voted out of office to make way for populist Southerners, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. The Adamses’ perceived resistance to a rising democratic spirit has been cited as a cause.
In The Problem of Democracy, Isenberg and Burstein elaborate on the Adamses’ constitutional reasons for supporting strong institutional checks in government; their concerns about democracy leaving the door open for the rise of demagogic figures; their worries about class factions; and their disinclination to surrender personal political independence to a two-party system. All of these are ideas that have clear implications in America today.
“This lecture will offer parallels to issues still debated today in our politics and governance,” said Patricia Proctor, director of the Simon Perry Center for Constitutional Democracy, which sponsors the lecture series. “Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg write about historical figures in a way that shows us how their ideas continue to matter. I am delighted that they are coming to Marshall University; I expect that their presentation to be entertaining as well as informative and thought-provoking.”
Burstein is the Charles P. Manship Professor of History at Louisiana State University and the author of six other books on early America, including The Passions of Andrew Jackson and Democracy’s Muse: How Thomas Jefferson Became an FDR Liberal, a Reagan Republican, and a Tea Party Fanatic, All the While Being Dead.
Isenberg is the T. Harry Williams Professor of American History at Louisiana State University and, in addition to White Trash, she is the author of two award-winning books, Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr and Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America. She is also the coauthor, with Burstein, of Madison and Jefferson.
They are dedicating their lecture to the memory of their friend, Marshall University alumnus James Weatherford (March 13, 1942- December 16, 2018). After graduating from Marshall, where he played on the basketball team, Weatherford earned a master’s degree at the University of Virginia and spent his career as a teacher, coach and guidance counselor. He was also a talented artist and a member of the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild. The lecturers live in Charlottesville, Virginia, for part of the year, and there became friends with Weatherford and his wife, Mic, also a Marshall graduate. Several members of the Weatherford family plan to attend the lecture.
The Amicus Curiae Lecture Series is supported by a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council.