A panel of presidential scholars that includes Shalom Carmy, John Patrick Diggins, Bruce Fein, Barbara Kellerman, and Sean Wilentz discuss the degree to which ethics should factor into evaluations of presidents.
This was the third panel of a day-long conference titled Ethics and Character in the Presidency: Is Ethical Leadership Possible in the 21st Century?
Bio
Shalom Carmy
Rabbi Shalom Carmy is a tenured professor of Jewish Studies and Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University. A Brooklyn native, he is a prominent Modern Orthodox theologian, historian, and philosopher.
He received his B.A. and M.S. from Yeshiva University, and received his rabbinic ordination from its affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
Carmy has written many articles; he is the editor of "Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought", of "Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah: Contributions and Limitations"
John Patrick Diggins
John Patrick Diggins is the author of The Rise and Fall of the American Left and The Proud Decades: 1941-1960, as well as biographies of John Adams and Max Weber. He is a Distinguished Professor of History at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Bruce Fein
Bruce Fein is a lawyer in the United States who specializes in constitutional and international law. Under President Ronald Reagan, Fein served as an associate deputy attorney general from 1981 to 1982 and as general counsel to the Federal Communications Commission.
Barbara Kellerman
Barbara Kellerman is the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She was the Founding Executive Director of the Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership, from 2000 to 2003; and from 2003 to 2006 she served as the Centers Research Director.
Kellerman has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, and Uppsala Universities. She also served as Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at Fairleigh Dickinson, and as Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland.
Ellen Schrecker
Ellen Wolf Schrecker, Ph.D. is a professor of American history at Yeshiva University. She is currently on leave, having received the Frederick Ewen Academic Freedom Fellowship at the Tamiment Library at NYU. Schrecker is primarily known for her work in the history of McCarthyism.
Sean Wilentz
Sean Wilentz is the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979.
Wilentz took his B.A. at Columbia University in 1972, before earning another B.A. at Oxford University on a Kellett Fellowship and his Ph.D. at Yale University. His historical scholarship has focused mainly on the early years of the American republic.
His major study to date, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, received the Bancroft Prize in 2006 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His first book, Chants Democratic, won several awards, including the Beveridge Award from the American Historical Association.
A contributing editor at The New Republic, Wilentz writes widely on music and the arts as well as history and politics, and has received a Grammy nomination and, from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, a Deems Taylor Award for musical commentary. He is the historian-in-residence of bobdylan.com, the official Bob Dylan web site.