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Thomas G. West

Professor of Politics, Paul Ermine Potter and Dawn Tibbetts Potter Endowed Professorship in Politics

Kendall 313

Curriculum Vitae

The above personal links are controlled by the individual and are not any form of representation of statement by Hillsdale College. They are provided as a convenience and views expressed on the sites may not reflect the views or opinions of the College.

“Education at its best leads us out of two things: the darkness of ignorance, and the prison of our selfish passions.”

~ Thomas G. West

Education

A.B. in Government, Cornell University, 1967

M.A. in Government, Claremont Graduate University, 1969

Ph.D. in Government, Claremont Graduate University, 1974

Syllabi of Recent Courses

Books

The Political Theory of the American Founding: Natural Rights, Public Policy, and the Moral Conditions of Freedom. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.

Vindicating the Founders, chapter 1, “Slavery.”(pdf)

Vindicating the Founders, chapter 7, “Immigration and the Moral Conditions of Citizenship.”(pdf)

Plato’s Apology of Socrates: An Interpretation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979.(pdf)

Books Edited or Translated

Modern America and the Legacy of the Founding. Edited by Ronald J. Pestritto and TGW. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2006.

Challenges to the American Founding: Slavery, Historicism, and Progressivism in the Nineteenth Century. Edited by Ronald J. Pestritto and TGW. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2004.

The American Founding and the Social Compact. Edited by Ronald J. Pestritto and TGW. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2003.

Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Aristophanes’ Clouds. Ed. with an introduction by TGW. Trans. TGW and Grace Starry West. Revised edition; Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. Over 200,000 copies sold.

Discourses Concerning Government, with an introduction and notes. Edited by TGW. Revised edition; Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1996.

Charmides. Translated by TGW and Grace Starry West. Introduction by TGW. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1986.

Shakespeare as Political Thinker. Edited by John E. Alvis and TGW. Revised and expanded edition; Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute Books, 2000.

Selected Articles

“Locke’s Neglected Teaching on Morality and the Family,” Society 50, no. 5 (Sept./Oct. 2013): 472-6. (pdf)

“The Grond of Locke’s Law of Nature.” Social Philosophy and Policy 29, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 1-50. (pdf)

“What’s Wrong with Tocqueville?” In “Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: What Tocqueville Teaches Today: A Conversation.” By Paul Rahe, James Ceaser, and Thomas West. First Principles Series #28, Heritage Foundation, 2009. (pdf)

“Progressivism and the Transformation of American Government.” In The Progressive Revolution in Politics and Political Science: Transforming the American Regime, ed. John Marini and Ken Masugi, 13-33. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. (pdf)

“The Transformation of Protestant Theology as a Condition of the American Revolution.” In Protestantism and the American Founding, ed. Thomas S. Engeman and Michael P. Zuckert, 187-223. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004. (pdf)

“Free Speech in the American Founding and in Modern Liberalism.” Social Philosophy and Policy 21, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 310-84. (pdf)

“Nature and Happiness in Locke: A Review of Michael Zuckert’s Launching Liberalism: On Lockean Political Philosophy.” Claremont Review of Books 4, no. 2 (Spring 2004). (pdf)

“Leo Strauss and American Foreign Policy.” In Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Ten Years of the Claremont Review of Books. Ed. Charles R. Kesler and John B. Kienker. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012 (orig. publ. 2004). (pdf)

“Sins of the Fathers.” (On Dostoevsky and the problem of traditionalism.) Claremont Review of Books 2, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 28-31. (pdf)

“Jaffa versus Mansfield: Does America Have a Constitutional or a ‘Declaration of Independence’ Soul?” Perspectives on Political Science 31, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 235-46. (pdf)

“Jaffa’s Lincolnian Defense of the Founding.” (Review of New Birth of Freedom.) Interpretation 28 (Spring 2001): 279-96. (pdf)

“Misunderstanding the American Founding.” In Interpreting Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, ed. Ken Masugi, 155-77. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1991. (pdf)

“Marx and Lenin.” In Marx and the Gulag: Two Essays, by Thomas G. West and Sanderson Schaub. Montclair, CA: Claremont Institute, 1988. (pdf)

“Allan Bloom and America.” (review of Closing of the American Mind.) Claremont Review of Books 6 (Spring 1988): 1, 17-20. (pdf)

“Cicero’s Teaching on Natural Law.” The St. John’s Review 32 (Summer 1981): 74-81. (pdf)