Liberty: Natural Rights and the American Constitution

Michael Zuckert is the Nancy R. Dreux Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Political Science at Arizona State University. He received his undergraduate education at Cornell University and his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1974. The bulk of his teaching and scholarship has been in the areas of American political thought, American constitutionalism and constitutional law, and early modern political philosophy.

Michael Zuckert has published extensively in those areas with books including Natural Rights and the New Republicanism (Princeton University Press, 1994) and The Natural Rights Republic (University of Notre Dame Press, 1996). He is also author and co-producer of the public radio drama Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson, a play based on the correspondence between these two leading members of the founding generation. He served as a senior scholar for a public television series about the American Revolution titled Liberty! and as advisor to the PBS series Benjamin Franklin (2002) and Alexander Hamilton (2007). For his work on rights, liberty, and the Constitution, Prof. Zuckert has won many awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jack Miller Center.

Praise for Michael Zuckert

“Michael Zuckert is a great scholar and a great teacher. No one has a better understanding of the deep sources of our constitutional tradition; no one can articulate them more eloquently.”
– Peter Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History Emeritus, University of Virginia

“Michael Zuckert is my favorite scholar of early American political thought. In contrast to many political scientists, his close attention to historical context and willingness to look way beyond the most visible texts have enabled him not only to win the respect and admiration of historians but also to make genuine and important contributions to historical knowledge that they cannot ignore.”
– Jack P. Greene, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities Emeritus, Johns Hopkins University

“Another superb contribution from one of America’s greatest political theorists. Michael Zuckert makes the constitution accessible for all.”
– Gordon S. Wood, Professor of History Emeritus, Brown University