Pulitzer Prize Winner to Speak at Clemson

"WHY AMERICA WANTS TO PROMOTE DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD"

The Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism is proud to present world-renowned historian and winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History Gordon S. Wood, the inaugural lecturer in its John William Pope Lecture Series.

America was born as a republic in the world filled with monarchies. It immediately felt a need to promote the spread of republicanism (or what we today call democracy) throughout the world not only out of self-interest but out of the belief of most of its citizens that a republican form of government based on the rule by the people was the only just polity. This led to America's emotional and diplomatic support for revolutionary movements throughout the Western world during the nineteenth century, a support that was brought to an abrupt end by the Soviet takeover of the Russian revolution in 1917. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 presumably changed everything, but in the past two decades America has had difficulty finding its proper role in the world.

Gordon Wood is currently the Alva O. Way University Professor at Brown University.
Date: Wednesday, October 3, 2007.
Time: 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (doors open at 4:15)
Place: Self Auditorium in the Strom Thurmond Institute on the Clemson University campus
Details: This event is free and open to the public.

The lecture will be followed by a brief question and answer period. Limited employee and visitor parking is available at the Strom Thurmond Institute. Visitors to the Clemson campus should proceed to the visitor's center (109 Daniel Dr. in Clemson) to obtain a temporary parking pass. This event is sponsored by The Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, part of the College of Business and Behavioral Science, and the John William Pope Foundation.