Joshua Mitchell, Professor of Political Theory, Georgetown University

To nearly everyone's surprise, Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States.  What are the larger historical movements, and what were internal crises within the Republican and Democratic parties, that allowed this to happen?  Relying on political theory rather than political science, we will attempt to answer this question.

Joshua Mitchell is Professor of Political Theory at Georgetown University. He has been Chairman of the Government Department, and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. During the 2008-10 academic years, he was the Acting Chancellor of The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani. His research interest lies in the relationship between political thought and theology in the West. He has published articles in The Review of Politics, The Journal of Politics, The Journal of Religion, American Political Science Review, Political Theory and Critical Review. He is the author of Not by Reason Alone: Religion, History, and Identity in Early Modern Political Thought (University of Chicago Press, 1993), The Fragility of Freedom: Tocqueville on Religion, Democracy, and American Future (University of Chicago Press, 1995), and Plato's Fable: On the Mortal Condition in Shadowy Times (Princeton University Press, 2006). His most recent book, Tocqueville in Arabia: Dilemmas in the Democratic Age, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2013. He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled “The Politics of Guilt and the Politics of Hope.” Professor Mitchell received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from the University of Washington, and his B.G.S. from the University of Michigan.