GEORGE THOMAS

Assistant Professor of Government

Claremont McKenna College

Pitzer Hall

Claremont, CA 91711

gthomas@cmc.edu

909-607-2911

 

Education

 

Ph.D.               Political Science, 2004

                        University of Massachusetts, Amherst

 

            Ph.D. Student in International Relations, 1992-1994

                        Columbia University

 

B.A.                 Political Science, Magna Cum Laude, 1992                

Certificate in International Relations

University of Utah

 

Academic Experience

 

Assistant Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna College 2007-

 

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Williams College, 2005-2007

 

Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Oklahoma, 2002-2005

 

Fields of Specialization

 

American Constitutional Development, Constitutionalism, American Political Thought

 

Publications

 

Books

 

The Madisonian Constitution (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Series in Constitutional Thought, 2008).

 

Articles and Chapters

 

“Popular Constitutionalism: The New Living Constitutionalism” Studies in Law, Politics, and Society Volume 44, 2008: 75-107.

 

“Two Cheers for Eighteenth Century Constitutionalism in the Twenty First Century” University of Maryland Law Review Volume 67, Issue 1, 2007: 101-129.

 

“What Dataset? The Qualitative Foundation of Law and Courts Scholarship” Law and Courts, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter 2006): 5-12. (Winner of the American Political Science Association’s 2006 Alexander L. George Award.)

 

“Unsettling the New Deal: Reagan’s Constitutional Reconstruction” in Christopher Kelley, ed., Executing the Constitution (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2006): 153-180. 

 

“The Qualitative Foundations of Political Science Methodology” Perspectives on Politics Volume 3, Number 4 (December 2005): 855-866.

 

“Recovering the Political Constitution: The Madisonian Vision” The Review of Politics Volume 66, Number 2 (Spring 2004): 55-78.

 

“The Parasite as Virtuoso: Sexual Desire and Political Order in Machiavelli’s Mandragola” Interpretation Volume 30, Number 2 (Spring 2003): 181-196.

 

“Religious Virtues, Religious Vices: Civic Education in the Liberal Polity” Humane Studies Review Volume 14, Number 3 (Summer 2002): 1-27.

 

“New Deal ‘Originalism’” Polity Volume 33, Number 1 (Fall 2000): 150-161.

 

“As Far as Republican Principles Will Admit: Presidential Prerogative and Constitutional Government” Presidential Studies Quarterly Volume 30, Number 3 (September 2000): 534-552. 

 

Reviews and Essays

 

“The Tensions of Constitutional Democracy” Constitutional Commentary (forthcoming).

Review essay of Constitutional Democracy: Creating and Maintaining a Just Political Order by Walter F. Murphy (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).

 

“James Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance” in Barry Kosmin, ed., Secularism and the Enlightenment (forthcoming).

 

“Is the First Amendment First?” Claremont Review of Books, Summer 2008.

Review essay of Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America’s Tradition of Religious Equality by Martha C. Nussbaum (New York: Basic Books, 2008) and Freedom For The Thought That We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment by Anthony Lewis (New York: Basic Books, 2007).

 

The Supreme Court: An Essential History by Peter Charles Hoffer, Williamjames Hull Hoffer, and N.E.H. Hull (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007) Political Science Quarterly (Fall 2008).

 

“The Constitutional Convention” and “The Federalist Papers” in David Tanenhaus, ed., Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court (Macmillan , Forthcoming 2008).

 

“Chief Justice John Roberts” in Richard Valelly, ed., Encyclopedia of United States Political History, Volume 7, 1976-present (CQ Press forthcoming).

 

Originalism in American Law and Politics: A Constitutional History by Johnathan O’Neill (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press) Law and Politics Book Review Volume 18, Number 2 (2008): 166-172.

 

The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review by Larry Kramer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 3, No. 3, (September 2005): 621-622.

 

Constructing Civil Liberties: Discontinuities in the Development of American Constitutional Law by Ken Kersch (New York, NY:  Cambridge University Press, 2004) Law and Politics Book Review Vol. 15, No.3 (March 2005): 181-186.

 

The Creation of American Common Law, 1850-1880: Technology, Politics, and the Construction of Citizenship by Howard Schweber (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004) Law and Politics Book Review Vol. 14, No. 5 (May 2004): 337-341.

 

“James Hill: Privacy and the Press” and “Daniel Seeger: The Meaning of Pacifism” in Melvin Urofsky, ed., 100 Americans Making Constitutional History (Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 2004): 96-98, 182-184.

 

Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution by Evan Gerstmann (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2003) Law and Politics Book Review Vol. 13, No. 12 (December 2003): 1-5.

 

Neglected Policies: Constitutional Law and Legal Commentary as Civic Education by Ira Strauber (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002). Journal of Politics Vol. 65, No. 2 (May 2003): 617-619.

 

Clergy Malpractice in America:  Nally v. Grace Community Church of the Valley by Martin Weitz (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2001). The Review of Politics Vol. 56, No. 1 (Winter 2003): 150-152.

 

Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States by John Noonan (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002). Law and Politics Book Review Vol. 12, No. 12 (December 2002): 1-5.

 

Conferences and Presentations

 

“What is Constitutional Development?” paper presented at the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA, August 28-31, 2008.

 

Chair, “Roundtable on Keith Whittington’s The Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy,” American Political Science Association, Boston, MA, August 28-31, 2008.

 

Annual Fellow, Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History, the University of Virginia’s Center for American Democracy and Constitutionalism, July 13-19, 2008

 

“James Madison’s ‘Memorial and Remonstrance’” essay presented for “Secularism and the Enlightenment,” sponsored by The Institute for the Study of Secular Society and Culture and Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, June 16-18, 2008.

 

“Research Conference on Secularism and the Enlightenment,” Institute for the Study of Secular Society and Culture (Trinity College), Lennox, MA, May 20-22, 2008.

 

Discussant, “The Constitution in American Politics,” Western Political Science Association, San Diego, California, March 19-21, 2008.

 

“Law and Liberty in the Judicial Practice of Robert H. Jackson” Liberty Fund colloquium, Sausalito, California, March 13-16, 2008.

 

“The Turn to Popular Constitutionalism” paper presented at the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, August 30-September 2, 2007.

 

Roundtable Discussant, Ken Kersch and Ronald Kahn’s The Supreme Court and American Political Development, New England Political Science Association, Newtown, Massachusetts, April 28-29, 2007.

 

“An Eighteenth Century Constitution in a Twenty-First Century World” University of Maryland, College of Law, Baltimore, Maryland, December 1-2, 2006.

 

“The Formation and Reform of the Federal Judicial Power,” Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C., October 20, 2006

 

“What is the Nature of the Constitution and Who May Interpret It?” talk at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, September 28, 2006.

 

“Constitutional Drift: The Progressive Reconstruction of Constitutional Authority” paper presented at New England Political Science Association, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, May 1-2, 2006, and American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 31-September 3, 2006.

 

Chair/Organizer, “The Second Generation of Historical Institutionalism: Still the Future of Public Law? Roundtable on Thomas Keck’s The Most Activist Supreme Court in History and Kevin McMahon’s Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., September 1-4, 2005.

 

Chair/Discussant, roundtable on Kevin McMahon’s Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race Western Political Science Association, Oakland, California, March 17-20, 2005.

 

Chair/Organizer, roundtable on "Global Constitutionalism," American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, September 2-5, 2004.

 

"Lochner's Ghost: Path Dependency in American Constitutional Development" paper presented at Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, April 15-17, 2004.

 

“New Deal History: Reconstructing American Constitutionalism” paper presented at the Western Political Science Association, Portland, Oregon, March 11-13, 2004.

 

"Lochner's Ghost in American Constitutional Development: The Post 1937 Search for Constitutional Rights" paper presented at the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 28-31, 2003.

 

"The Reagan Court's Resuscitation of Federalism" paper presented at the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, April 4-6, 2003.

 

"Discontinuities in the 'Constitutional Revolution of 1937'" paper presented at the Western Political Science Association, Denver, Colorado, March 27-29, 2003.

 

“Unsettling the New Deal: Reagan’s Constitutional Reconstruction” paper presented at the American Political Science Association, Boston, Massachusetts, August 28-31, 2002.

 

“Contesting Constitutional Meaning: Congress, The Supreme Court, and the Civil War Amendments” paper presented at the New England Political Science Association, Portland, Maine, May 3-4, 2002.

 

“Constitutional Politics and Judicial Supremacy” paper presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 9-10, 2001.

 

“The Rhetorical Presidency, Judicial Supremacy, and Constitutional Interpretation” talk at the Supreme Court Historical Society, Washington, D.C., June 19, 2001.

 

Chair/Organizer, Roundtable on Keith Whittington’s Constitutional Construction: Divided Powers and Constitutional Meaning, New England Political Science Association, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, May 9-10, 2001.

 

“Religious Virtues, Religious Vices: Civic Education and the Question of Belief” paper presented at the New England Political Science Association, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, May 9-10, 2001.

 

“Constitutional Duality: Our Political and Legal Constitution(s)” paper presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association, Albany, New York, November 9-10, 2000.

“As Far as Republican Principles Will Admit: Presidential Prerogative and Constitutional Government” paper presented at the New England Political Science Association, Providence, Rhode Island, May 5-6, 1999

 

Awards/Honors

 

$4,000 course development grant, Institute for the Study of Secular Society and Culture (Trinity College) for seminar on Liberty of Conscience.

 

American Political Science Association’s 2006 Alexander L. George Award for best article on qualitative methods.

 

$4,000 development stipend, ISI Summer Institute in conjunction with Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, June 19-July 1, 2006.

 

$10, 000 research grant, Program on Politics and Economics, George Mason Law and Economics Center, 2005.

 

Summer Institute, Program on Politics and Economics, George Mason Law and Economics Center, June 18-25, 2005

 

$6,000 research grant, Dean of Arts and Science, University of Oklahoma, 2004.

 

“Contesting Constitutional Meaning: Congress, the Supreme Court and the Meaning of the Civil War Amendments” nominated for the 2002 Hughes-Gossett Award by the Supreme Court Historical Society.

 

Recognized by Pi Sigma Alpha for Excellence in Teaching, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2002.

 

Summer Fellow, Supreme Court Historical Society, Summer Institute on “The Constitutional Transformation of the Modern Presidency,” Washington D.C., June 10-29, 2001.