Welcome. I’m a Professor of Political Science and the Hagerty Family Fellow at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, as well as the director of SU's Political Philosophy Program. My research focuses on the history of political thought, particularly the Enlightenment and the American founding.
I’m the author of five books, including The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought, which was shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award and named a best book of the year in The Guardian, Bloomberg, Project Syndicate, Australian Book Review, and Five Books; Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders, which was named a best politics book of the year in the Wall Street Journal; and, most recently, The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter.
I’m the author of five books, including The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought, which was shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award and named a best book of the year in The Guardian, Bloomberg, Project Syndicate, Australian Book Review, and Five Books; Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders, which was named a best politics book of the year in the Wall Street Journal; and, most recently, The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter.