Constitution Day Speaker

Virginia Military Institute

Lexington, Virginia

To commemorate Constitution Day, VMI welcomes Dr. Francis D. Cogliano to ask, “Does Thomas Jefferson still matter?”

Thomas Jefferson has been reinvented more than perhaps any American president in history. Consider Jefferson in the 19th century, his decline in reputation after the Civil War, his soaring image in the 20th century, and then Jefferson’s shift in legacy yet again in the 21st century. Leading Jefferson scholars, Peter S. Onuf and Francis D. Cogliano situate the founding father in his complicated historical context and reveal how his wisdom can be applied today.

 

More Information and Tickets

America at 250 Panel

Jay Heritage Centre

Rye, New York

Professors David Blight, Frank Cogliano, Joanne Freeman and Beverly Gage will take the stage at the new Wachenheim Center to examine the history of the nation-state and the contested nature of American national identity. The panel will discuss what the United States and the Constitution have meant to citizens over time and how that vision has changed or stayed constant. They will illustrate how the American Revolution was the first but not the last radical act of national reimagining in U.S. history. The panelists will engage with 150 attendees in a robust Q & A about how to bridge divides and engage in civil discourse while studying the complexities of our shared heritage together. The event will be recorded.

More Information and Tickets
www.franciscogliano.com

About some recent publications

"Thomas Jefferson Survives", "A Revolutionary Friendship & "The American Revolution at 250"
"In this surprising and illuminating collection, an all-star lineup of our finest historians of America delivers essays at once profound and personal. Two and a half centuries after the Declaration of Independence, we are a nation in search of our soul, and this book offers us some much-needed guidance through the tangles of the present."
JON MEACHAM
JON MEACHAMAuthor, Pulitzer Prize winner
"It is hard to believe no one has written a detailed account of the difficult friendship between the two Virginian revolutionaries George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. We now have Cogliano's meticulously researched, insightful, and fluidly written account of their history with each other. This book is just what we need as we approach the 250th anniversary of what these two men helped put in motion, the American Revolution."
Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-ReedAuthor of "The Hemingses of Monticello", Pulitzer Prize winner
"An enlightening and wide-ranging collection of essays from leading scholars that will at times provoke, sometimes surprise, and ultimately inspire readers as they contemplate the meaning and legacy of the nation's birth."
PATRICK SPERO,
PATRICK SPERO, CEO of the American Philosophical Society
“Looking for lessons on unity, I found “A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic,” by Francis D. Cogliano..... As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, it’s a timely reminder that sustaining a republic requires constant commitment to principle over partisanship.”
Ms Maria Salazar for the Wall Street Journal “WHO READ WHAT IN 2025”
Ms Maria Salazar for the Wall Street Journal “WHO READ WHAT IN 2025”US Congress (FL)
"Mr. Cogliano makes a strong case that Washington and Jefferson, though dissimilar as individuals, possessed similarities that 'reflected their class and society.' They both sought a republic of liberty in America but disagreed over what it should look like. As we know too well today, friendships become fragile when political differences are unbridgeable."
Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
"A brilliant introduction to two superstars of the founding of America, to the dramatic events they lived through and to the conflicts that shaped their interactions" (Washington & Jefferson)
History Today
History Today
"But great genius also finds strong and round terms for truths. Think them, say them, and trust future generations to find them when they need them".
June 2026 on "Thomas Jefferson Survives"
June 2026 on "Thomas Jefferson Survives"Wall Street Journal
“Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours”, by Peter Onuf and Francis Cogliano, uses our shifting values, and citizenship, as the heart of this look at Jefferson’s vision for the country, its people and why he came to feel this way. Our never-ending ideological battles to claim or reject him, the authors argue, “miss the point”: Jefferson wanted the future to correct the past.
Summer books: Our 50 coolest books for your hottest months
Summer books: Our 50 coolest books for your hottest monthsChicago Tribune
"The book is insightful to both Jefferson in his times and how some of his thoughts on our American nation remain applicable today"
Dean Poling
Dean PolingThe Valdosta Daily Times

 

 

About Frank

Historian, Author and Broadcaster

Francis D. Cogliano is the author of  Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours, A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republican and Emperor of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson’s Foreign Policy. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and cohost of the American history podcast “The Whiskey Rebellion”. He is Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh.

July – Dec 2026: Frank will be in residence at The George Washington Presidential Library, Mount Vernon, VA as the recipient of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Senior Fellowship in Political History, the Presidency, and Constitutional Thought

 

Read More