Constitutional Law Expert Kermit Roosevelt III to Deliver Lecture on his Book “The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story” The March 7 talk in University Chapel was made possible by a $5,000 grant from the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati.

By Brian Laubscher
February 21, 2024

Kermit Roosevelt III, David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School, will deliver a lecture and host a Q&A session on his book “The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story” at the Washington and Lee University Chapel at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, was made possible by a $5,000 grant awarded to W&L through the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia and its Visiting Scholar Program.

“The Virginia Society of the Cincinnati awards grants each year to support visiting scholars and we are pleased that they chose W&L as one of the schools for the 2023-24 school year,” said Brian Alexander, W&L associate professor of politics. “W&L alumnus Rob Turnbull ’72 and his colleagues at the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati are generous in supporting this program and we hope to continue a long-standing relationship between W&L and this organization in the years to come.”

A direct descendant of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt is an expert in constitutional law and the conflict of laws. He is also the author of “The Myth of Judicial Activism: Making Sense of Supreme Court Decisions” and “Conflict of Laws.”

Roosevelt’s discussion regarding “The Nation That Never Was,” surrounds his contention that Americans’ idea of the founders’ America and its values are not true. He argues that we are not heirs of the nation’s founders, but rather the heirs of Reconstruction and its vision for equality.

“It is exciting to bring someone as celebrated as Kermit Roosevelt III to our campus for such an interesting and debated discussion,” said Alexander. “Roosevelt claims that a lot of our values are Lincolnian interpretations of the founding era. It is intriguing to consider that our commitment to freedom and equality might owe more to Abraham Lincoln than we usually consider.”

While on campus, Roosevelt plans to visit with student members of the American Constitutional Society, in addition to interacting with faculty and students from the W&L School of Law.

Roosevelt holds a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. In addition to teaching at Penn, he also served as a visiting professor at Yale in 2002.

The Society of the Cincinnati traces its roots back to 1783 and is the oldest private patriotic organization in the United States. It was founded as a beneficiary organization to the soldiers of the Revolutionary War. In 1824, the remaining members disbanded their society and donated the bulk of their treasury, about $25,000, to Washington College (now Washington and Lee University). Virginia Society of the Cincinnati Visiting Scholar awards are intended to promote study and discussion of the Revolutionary era and support the education of our future leaders.