Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

Samuel Postell is Assistant Director of the Lyceum Scholars Program at Clemson University’s Snow Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Dallas, with a dissertation on Henry Clay, union, and legislative statesmanship. His teaching and research span American political thought, capitalism, politics and literature, and antebellum political life. He has a forthcoming book on Melville’s Moby-Dick entitled American Epic: Philosophy, Power, and Impiety in Melville’s Moby-Dick.

Thomas Merrill is an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He is the author of Hume and the Politics of Enlightenment. He is also the co-editor of three edited volumes, including The Political Thought of the Civil War.

Diana Schaub is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where her work is focused on American political thought and history, particularly Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, African American political thought, Montesquieu, and the relevance of core American ideals to contemporary challenges and debates. Concurrently, she is Professor Emerita of Political Science at Loyola University Maryland, where she taught for almost three decades.

Cheryl Miller is executive director at the Hertog Foundation. Previously, she served as deputy director of research in the Office of Presidential Speechwriting and as research assistant to David Brooks at The New York Times. Her reviews and commentary have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and The Weekly Standard. She graduated from the University of Dallas with Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Politics.

Alex Priou is an Associate Professor of Political Theory at UATX. His research and teaching both focus on the history of political philosophy, with specialization in Plato and the Pre-Socratic poets and philosophers. He often writes for a broader audience on his Substack and Public Discourse and is the co-host of a weekly podcast The New Thinkery where he discusses a broad array of texts philosophical, historical, political, and literary.