Representative Christopher Cox, author of Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, and Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago join moderator Jeffrey Rosen to discuss Woodrow Wilson’s constitutional and historical legacy. They explore Wilson’s illiberal record in the defining constitutional battles of his time, focusing his opposition to women’s suffrage, free speech, and racial equality.
This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on November 25, 2024.
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This episode was produced by Lana Ulrich, Tanaya Tauber, Samson Mostashari, and Bill Pollock. It was engineered by Kevin Kilbourne and Bill Pollock. Research was provided by Samson Mostashari, Cooper Smith, Gyuha Lee, Matthew Spero, and Yara Daraiseh.
Participants
Christopher Cox is a political historian and senior scholar in residence at the University of California, Irvine, a Life Trustee of the University of Southern California, chair of the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee for Southern California and the Pacific, and a member of several nonprofit and for-profit boards. Between two decades as a practicing lawyer, he served as chair of the Homeland Security Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and senior associate counsel to the president. He is the author of Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn.
Geoffrey Stone is the is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he joined the faculty in 1973. He is the author of many books on constitutional law, including Roe v. Dobbs: The Past, Present and Future of a Constitutional Right to Abortion; National Security, Leaks and Freedom of the Press; The Free Speech Century; Top Secret: When Our Government Keeps Us in the Dark; Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime, and Eternally Vigilant: Free Speech in the Modern Era. He an editor of the Supreme Court Review and has also written amicus briefs for constitutional scholars in a number of Supreme Court cases.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. Rosen is also a professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. His most recent book is The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.
Additional Resources
- Christopher Cox, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn (2024)
- Geoffrey Stone, “Woodrow Wilson, Princeton University, and the Battles We Choose to Fight,” Huffington Post (Nov. 21, 2015)
- Geoffrey Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (2004)
- Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918
- Committee on Public Information, Free Speech Center (2009; updated 2024)
- The First Amendment, National Constitution Center exhibit
- Susan B. Anthony Amendment, National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House
- Justice Brandeis, Oyez
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