Research Interests

• Origins of the American Revolution
• Creation of a national polity and government between the early 1770s and 1800
• Origins of the Constitution and the early history of its interpretation
• Political ideas and career of James Madison

Courses Taught

• Colonial and Revolutionary America
• The Constitution: A Short History
• Creating the American Republic
• Constitutional Interpretation in History and Theory

Publications

• The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress (Knopf, 1979) ed.,
• Interpreting the Constitution: The Debate over Original Intent (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990)
• James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (Scott Forsman, 1990); expanded ed., (Longman, 2001, 2006)
• Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (Knopf, 1996)
• Declaring Rights: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford 1997)
• ed., James Madison: Writings (Library of America, 1999)
• ed., The Unfinished Election of 2000 (Basic Books, 2001)
• ed., with John Ferejohn and Jonathan Riley, Constitutional Culture and Democratic Rule (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
• ed., The Federalist: The Major Essays (Bedford, 2003)
• Founding America: Documents from the Revolution to the Bill of Rights (Barnes & Noble, 2006)
• Revolutionaries: Inventing an American Nation (Houghton Mifflin, forthcoming)
• Beyond Belief, Beyond Conscience: The Radical Significance of the Free Exercise of Religion (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

Awards and Fellowships

• 1997 Pulitzer in History
• Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Prize, The Society of the Cincinnati Book Prize and Doctor of Humane Letters, all for Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (Barat College, 2002)

University Service

• Appointments and Promotions Committee, School of Humanities & Sciences, 2004-2006
• Decanal Search Committee, Stanford Law School, 2004
• Athletic Compliance Committee, 2002-2005
• Provostial Search Committee, 2000
• Board of Governors, The Hanna House, Stanford, California 1996-
• Board of the Stanford University Press, 1997-99
• Overseas Studies Advisory Committee, 1997-99
• University Committee on Land, Building, and Development, 1993-96
• Committee on Graduate Studies, 1993-96 (chair, 1994-96)
• Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of History, 1991-97, 1999-2000
• Director, American Studies Program, 1985-88, 2002-2003

Professional Affiliations

• Fellow, American Philosophical Society (2007)
• Society for the History of the Early American Republic (Council 1994-1997; President 2002-2003)
• Associate, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (Council 1999-2002)
• Organization of American Historians
• American Historical Association
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1999)
• American Antiquarian Society
• American Political Science Association