Richard Beeman - Dr. Richard R. Beeman has been on the faculty of the Department of History at Penn for thirty-six years. He is an historian of the American Revolutionary Era, and has written five books and several dozen articles on aspects of America 's political and constitutional history in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
His fifth book, The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth Century America, is a wide-ranging, interpretive study of the uncertain and confused origins of democracy in America. It was published in the Spring of 2004 as part of the McNeil Series in Early American History by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
He has served as Chair of the Department of History, Associate Dean in SAS responsible for the School's humanities and social sciences departments, and as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He also continues to serve in his role as Vice-Chair of the Academic Advisory Board and as Chair of the Program and Exhibits Committee of the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center.
Jon Meacham - Jon Meacham is the editor of Newsweek magazine. He began as a writer, became national affairs editor, and was named managing editor in 1998. He has supervised coverage of politics, international affairs, and breaking news, and has written cover stories on politics, religion, race, guns in America, and the death of Ronald Reagan.
His most recent book is American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He is also the author of American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation and Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship. He writes often for The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. In 2001, he edited Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement.
At a moment when the American public is focused on the presidency and how presidents lead the nation, the National Constitution Center welcomes back Newsweek editor Jon Meacham for a discussion about his remarkable biography of President Andrew Jackson.
Orphan, battle-hardened warrior, founder of the Democratic Party, and architect of the modern presidency, Jackson rose from nothing to the pinnacle of power. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House is an exciting portrait of one of our most important, yet least remembered presidents.
Richard Beeman, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, moderates- National Constitution Center