Dennis C. Rasmussen
political theorist
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Welcome. I’m a Professor of Political Science and the Hagerty Family Fellow at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. I’m also the co-director of SU's Political Philosophy Program and a Senior Research Associate at the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. My research focuses on the Enlightenment, the American founding, and the virtues and shortcomings of liberal democracy and market capitalism.
I received my PhD from Duke University in 2005 and my BA from Michigan State University's James Madison College in 2000. Before coming to Syracuse, I held positions at Tufts University, the University of Houston, Brown University, and Bowdoin College.
I’m the author of five books, including The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought, which was shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award and named a best book of the year in The Guardian, Bloomberg, Project Syndicate, Australian Book Review, and Five Books; Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders, which was named a best politics book of the year in the Wall Street Journal; and, most recently, The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter.
I received my PhD from Duke University in 2005 and my BA from Michigan State University's James Madison College in 2000. Before coming to Syracuse, I held positions at Tufts University, the University of Houston, Brown University, and Bowdoin College.
I’m the author of five books, including The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship That Shaped Modern Thought, which was shortlisted for the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award and named a best book of the year in The Guardian, Bloomberg, Project Syndicate, Australian Book Review, and Five Books; Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders, which was named a best politics book of the year in the Wall Street Journal; and, most recently, The Constitution's Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America's Basic Charter.