CANCELED: 'The Pursuit of Liberty': Jeffrey Rosen in Conversation with Stephen G. Bowling

Note to patrons: This event has been canceled, with no makeup date yet determined. Please stay tuned to The Westport Library website for more.

Event Details

President and CEO of the National Constitution Center and professor of law Jeffrey Rosen will be on hand to discuss his new book, Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America. Professor Rosen will be in conversation with award-winning author Stephen G. Bowling of the Prometheum Foundation.

Why You Should Come

More than ever, the clash between Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian ideals resonates today in our most urgent national debates over the question of whether modern presidents are consolidating power and subverting the Constitution — the very threat to American democracy that both Hamilton and Jefferson were determined to avoid. The Pursuit of Liberty is a compelling history of the opposing forces that have shaped our country since its founding, and the ongoing struggle to define the balance between liberty and power.

About Pursuit of Liberty

The best-selling author of The Pursuit of Happiness shows how the opposing constitutional visions of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton have defined our country for 250 years, influenced presidents from Washington to Trump, and continue to drive the debate over the power of government today.

In The Pursuit of Liberty, best-selling author and president of the National Constitution Center Jeffrey Rosen explores the clashing visions of Hamilton and Jefferson about how to balance liberty and power in a debate that continues to define — and divide — our country: Jefferson championed states’ rights and individual liberties, while Hamilton pushed for a strong Federal government and a powerful executive. This ongoing tug-of-war has shaped all the pivotal moments in American history, including Abraham Lincoln’s fight against slavery and southern secession, the expansion of federal power under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and Ronald Reagan’s and Donald Trump’s conservative push to shrink the size of the federal government.

Rosen also shows how Hamilton and Jefferson’s disagreement over how to read the Constitution has shaped landmark debates in Congress and the Supreme Court about executive power, from John Marshall’s early battles with Andrew Jackson to the current divisions among the justices on issues from presidential immunity to control over the administrative state.

Book description courtesy Simon and Schuster.

About the Speakers

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker.

Rosen’s new book, Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle over Power in America, came out in October 2025. His other books include New York Times best-sellers The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America and Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law, as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft.

Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. In 2024, the French government recognized him as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Stephen G. Bowling is an award-winning author, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Much like Peter Pan, Bowling never wanted to grow up. Or rather, while he didn’t mind getting older, he never wanted to lose the child-like enchantment of imagination and wonder. Creating colorful worlds and stories for children has allowed Bowling to both preserve his own imagination while sharing the joy of learning with children worldwide.

Bowling has a BA in political science from Brandeis University. He is an entrepreneur who has worked on, and holds, several U.S. patents. He heads the Prometheum Foundation, a nonprofit philosophical organization that helps teach students critical and analytical thinking, freedom of thought, and entrance into the marketplace of ideas.

Bowling moderates discussions and debates of all types. He has been conducting the Franklin Forum high school programs for more than 20 years. This Forum places students in the arena of public debate in which they are obliged to think about issues and public policy. It allows them to test their opinions, hear opposing views, and debate current issues, all in a setting with a free and open exchange of ideas. The Forum teaches civility in civil discourse; the ability to disagree and still be agreeable even in a passionate exchange of views. Students develop self-confidence, self-esteem, respect for the opinion of others and the ability to effectively communicate their views.

He is a lifelong weightlifter, an avid student of history and philosophy, and has a fascination with astrophysics.