Great books seminar, lecture round out Marshall Center's inaugural year

May 14, 2009

A "great books" seminar on ancient and modern statesmanship and a lecture on ambition by Robert Faulkner, a professor of political science at Boston College, were the concluding events of the 2008-09 academic year at the John Marshall International Center for the Study of Statesmanship.

Faulkner discussed ambition - both good and bad - as it relates to leadership. His lecture was the final in a series sponsored by the John Marshall Center that included scholar Waller R. Newell, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, Glyn Davies, principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and renowned British historian Sir David Cannadine.

Faulkner's lecture was informed by his book, The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics, published by Yale University Press.

His scholarship focuses on modern political philosophy and American political and legal thought. He is the author of Francis Bacon and the Project of Progress and The Jurisprudence of John Marshall, and co-editor of America at Risk (2008) and Marshall's Life of George Washington (2000). 

Faulkner also participated in the seminar during his visit. The seminar was held May 14-15 and invited scholars to explore statesmanship using works such as Machiavelli's The Prince and John Locke's Second Treatise of Government.

The John Marshall International Center examines the business of government and the shaping of public policy by hosting fellows and speakers, and developing curriculum and programs primarily focused on the constitution, political economy, politics and ethical reasoning. The center approaches the study and practice of statesmanship through a program that combines scholarly and practical attention to constitutionalism, political economy, politics and ethical reasoning.

Posted June 29, 2009