At a time of widespread alarm over the state of American democracy and constitutional government, two of the nation’s most celebrated historians delivered a bracingly optimistic message to a campus audience: We’ve been here before, and we’ll get through it.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, H ’25, the acclaimed presidential historian, together with leading scholar of constitutional history Akhil Reed Amar, headlined the Clough Colloquium sponsored twice a year by the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics at the Carroll School of Management.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Hon. ‘25
More than 325 students, faculty, alumni, and others turned out for the September 17 event, which marked the 20th anniversary of the Winston Center, established through the generosity of Robert L. Winston, MCAS ’60, and Judy Winston. It was also Constitution Day in the United States. The center’s executive director, Monetta Edwards, said the idea was to lash its themes of ethics and leadership to the 250th anniversary of America's founding and the quest for ongoing democratic renewal.
Using their historical lenses, Goodwin and Amar called upon lessons from such challenging and nightmarish times as the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, and the mid-century struggles for civil rights, along with the presidents and leaders who marshaled the nation through those epochs.
“This is why history is so important,” Goodwin said in a conversation with Amar moderated by Boston College Professor Jonathan Laurence, a political scientist and director of the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, which co-sponsored the late afternoon and early evening colloquium held in Robsham Theater. “We’ve had rough times before, and we’ve always endured.”
She harkened back to the 1930s, when “people were starving in the streets,” and to the 1940s as the Nazis were sweeping through Europe with only the British fighting against them.
“History gives us perspective,” said Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such lauded works as Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. “The Depression ended; the Allies won the war.” Alluding to current debates surrounding the exercise of presidential power and acute concentrations of wealth, she added that history is reminding us, “We could get through this as a people.”
“ We have followed the Constitution in our most important moments, and we’ve added to equality, not taken away equality. ”
For Amar, a professor of constitutional law at Yale University, history also tells us that the US Constitution prevails—and even renews itself. He noted that almost as soon as the Constitution was fully adopted, in 1789, the first 10 amendments, collectively known as the Bill Rights, were ratified. He pointed also to the 18th amendment, born out of the Civil War and freeing of the slaves, which stated: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
Amar acknowledged that an amendment to the Constitution, which ultimately requires adoption by three-quarters of the 50 states, would be almost inconceivable in this age of corrosive polarization. But he also, as a contemporary example, highlighted the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling on June 30 of this year that upheld the 18th amendment and its provision for “birthright citizenship,” a right challenged by President Trump through an executive order.
Akhil Reed Amar
The legal scholar said, “We have followed the Constitution in our most important moments, and we’ve added to equality, not taken away equality.”
Amar and Goodwin, together with Laurence, sat in black armchairs on the Robsham stage, a large screen behind them displaying photos of past Clough Colloquium speakers. These have ranged from Nobel Peace Prize winners, including human rights activist and sexual violence survivor Nadia Murad, to political figures like former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney and military leaders, among them retired four-star US Navy Admiral James Stavridis. The colloquium series is made possible by Charles I. Clough, MCAS ’64, and Gloria L. Clough, STM ’90, CGSON ’96 (the parents of three Boston College graduates).
During the Q&A that followed, Amar was asked by an older member of the audience how to square the “all men are created equal” creed in the Declaration of Independence with the reality that many founders were slaveholders. At the time of the declaration, indeed “no colonies were free,” Amar replied. But he put a positive slant on the question: That same year, the Abolitionist Movement arose, with the Pennsylvania Society of Friends (the Quakers) banning its members from owning enslaved people. The nation kept moving.
A young woman took the microphone and, echoing a Goodwin remark about the need to “build on the hope of the past,” asked how students and the country as a whole could do that today. One way, Goodwin said, is to launch a comprehensive national service program that would foster a sense of common purpose among young Americans. She also called for campaign finance reform aimed at getting big money out of politics; and restoring protections under the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court has effectively dismantled.
Among other speakers were Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean Gregory A. Kalscheur, SJ, who is also a member of the Boston College Law School faculty. Pointing out that the gathering on Constitution Day comes at a "particularly fraught and fragile moment in the history of our democracy,” Fr. Kalscheur highlighted not only the individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution but also a call to responsibility for the common good, embedded in the document. That means promoting “the general welfare” and creating structures and institutions that would give greater substance to those words in the preamble.
“ What we need more than anything in this country is character—humility, empathy, and kindness. They [leaders] can’t be great until they become decent. ”
Two student fellows of the Clough Center also delivered brief remarks. Yuejiao Jiang, a first-year Ph.D. student doing her work on social psychology, spoke of encountering the Constitution while growing up in China and appreciating how it “limits the powers” of different branches of government; Harry Reichman, a senior studying English and political science, cast the Constitution as a “living document” that should always serve as an ally of people fighting for human dignity and justice. David Quigley, the Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Provost and Dean of Faculties at Boston College, as well as a scholar of urban life in 19th century America, introduced speakers and cited the University’s commitment to “ongoing conversation” about the Constitution and the American experiment.
Looming large in that conversation was Lincoln, whom President Trump and many presidents before him have said they’d like to emulate. Goodwin reprised stories from Team of Rivals about how Lincoln, instead of surrounding himself with flattering yes-men, appointed some of his most formidable opponents to critical cabinet posts because he felt the diverse viewpoints would “make him a better president.”
She elaborated on Lincoln’s leadership style, which involved masterful listening, while calling attention to his integrity and other personal traits. “What we need more than anything in this country is character—humility, empathy, and kindness,” Goodwin said. “They [leaders] can’t be great until they become decent.”
The Clough Colloquium is one of several speaker series offered throughout the academic year by the Winston Center, along with student programming that seeks to foster a new generation of ethical leaders.
