Jeffrey Rosen
Special guest
Jeffrey Rosen is the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker.
Rosen’s new book, Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle over Power in America, is out in October 2025. His other books include New York Times bestsellers The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America and Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law, as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft.
Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Law Institute. In 2024, the French government recognized him as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Jeffrey Rosen has been a guest on 1 episode.
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Episode 307: Hamilton vs. Jefferson: The Battle That Still Shapes America, with Jeffrey Rosen
October 13th, 2025 | 1 hr 30 secs
In this episode of Give and Take, Scott talks with Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center and author of the new book The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America. Rosen explores how the clash between Alexander Hamilton’s vision of energetic government and Thomas Jefferson’s dream of individual freedom continues to define American politics. From the founding era to the present day, their competing philosophies echo through our debates over federal power, states’ rights, and the meaning of liberty itself. It’s a conversation about history, ideas, and the enduring struggle to balance freedom and order in the American experiment.