Equality & The American Promise
Consider the promise of equality at the heart of the Declaration of Independence.
The third week of Political Studies will focus on the founding of the United States and its perpetuation.
The first section invites fellows to explore the question of American character through a close reading of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, often described as the “best book about democracy, and the best book about America.” Toccqueville’s insights, which have remained relevant for nearly 200 years, form a uniquely good guide for thinking about the way the presuppositions of a democratic society structure our thinking about political engagement, religion, career, and personal life, for both better and worse. Tocqueville sees what is best about American democracy: its constant efforts to bring about an egalitarian sense of justice, its energetic entrepreneurship, and the diversity of ways it offers to get involved in political life. He also sees how citizens of such a society can feel especially lonely and rootless, and how that unease can undermine both our personal quests for happiness and the stability of our political order. Fellows will consider how Tocqueville’s insights might help us understand better the unique society we live in, and more thoughtfully approach the particular personal and political challenges of an American life.
The second section turns to the nature of the American founding. How should we think about the achievements of America’s founders—with a focus on how they introduced a new order of things, not only in the design of American political institutions but in reshaping the ends of politics itself?
Dr. Storey on restlessness & the modern soul
This course is part of our residential Political Studies Program. Fellows participate in morning seminars and meet prominent men and women in public life over afternoon and evening sessions. Up to 32 fellows will be selected.
Faculty
Jenna Silber Storey
Jenna Silber Storey is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and co-director of AEI’s Center for the Future of the American University. She is concurrently an SNF Agora Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and a research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. She also serves on the executive committee of the Alliance for Civics in the Academy.
Jenna Silber Storey
Jenna Silber Storey is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and co-director of AEI’s Center for the Future of the American University. She is concurrently an SNF Agora Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and a research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. She also serves on the executive committee of the Alliance for Civics in the Academy.
Dr. Storey’s work concentrates on liberal education, civic thought, and the relationship between the university and society. She has developed a series of initiatives in partnership with Johns Hopkins University to provide pathways for collaboration between JHU faculty and AEI scholars, to support ideologically heterodox students who aspire to careers in academia, and to host discussions to explore the emerging academic field of civic thought and practice.
Previously, Dr. Storey was assistant professor in politics and international affairs and the executive director of the Tocqueville Program at Furman University. In addition to Furman University, she has taught at the University of Chicago; the Buckley Program at Yale University; the Hertog Summer Studies Program in Washington, DC; and the Tikvah Fund in Princeton, New Jersey. Earlier she worked as executive assistant to the superintendent for the Boston University–Chelsea Schools partnership. She served as a board member of Veritas Preparatory School in Greenville, South Carolina, from 2019 to 2021, and now serves as a board member of the St. Jerome Institute in Washington, DC, the Center for Constitutional Liberty at Benedictine College, and the Honors College at Tulsa University.
Dr. Storey is the coauthor, with her husband, Benjamin Storey, of Why We Are Restless: On the Modern Quest for Contentment (Princeton University Press, 2021). Together, the Storeys are working on a book titled The Art of Choosing: How Liberal Education Should Prepare You for Life.
Dr. Storey’s work has been published in media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, National Affairs, Humanities, the Boston Globe, National Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, American Purpose, Society, the New Atlantis, City Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, and First Things. She has lectured at institutions such as Oxford University, West Point, the City College of New York, American University, the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Classical Education, and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. She has also delivered papers at the American Political Science Association conference and other disciplinary conferences.
Dr. Storey has a PhD from the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought and a BA from the University Professors Program at Boston University. She spent time in Germany as a visiting student at the University of Tübingen and as an exchange student at Dresden University.
Dorothea Wolfson
Dorothea Israel Wolfson is Managing Director of the Hertog Foundation. Previously, she was Director of the Master of Arts in Government Program at Johns Hopkins University. Her research and teaching interests center on democracy and civic engagement, American political thought, American politics, and family policy. She has published articles on Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, and on John Locke and children’s literature.
Dorothea Wolfson
Dorothea Israel Wolfson is Managing Director of the Hertog Foundation. Previously, she was Director of the Master of Arts in Government Program at Johns Hopkins University. Her research and teaching interests center on democracy and civic engagement, American political thought, American politics, and family policy. She has published articles on Alexis de Tocqueville, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail Adams, and on John Locke and children’s literature. She has collaborated on a book, Our Sacred Honor, with William J. Bennett, and her essays and reviews have appeared in The Claremont Review of Books, The American Interest, and Perspectives on Political Science. Before joining the Johns Hopkins program, she was a Policy Analyst at Empower America. She holds an A.B. from the University of Chicago in “Fundamentals: Issues and Texts” and a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. She lives in Kensington, Maryland, with her husband, Adam, and four children. In her free time, she likes to play tennis and do crossword puzzles.
