James Madison, the Constitution, and America’s Ongoing Revolution.

A conversation with Montpelier Foundation President and CEO Kat Imhoff about how James Madison framed our country’s conversations about rights and freedom

Hardly a week passes when the U.S. Constitution is not driving headlines, and yet, many Americans still don’t know the story of how our nation’s social contract came into existence at a moment that has been described by scholars as a “hinge point” in world history. Montpelier Foundation President and CEO Kat Imhoff will discuss how her team is creating a new kind of historic site at James Madison’s historic 2,650-acre plantation, designed to put the past in conversation with the present through a range of place-based experiences. Connecting the stories of the Foundation’s leading work on the interpretation of slavery and its work training Constitutional practitioners at the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution to the dramatic three-year period from 1786-1789 during which Madison created the framework for the U.S. Constitution and drafted the Bill of Rights, Imhoff will explain Montpelier’s methods of engaging citizens with the nation’s biggest idea: government by the people. Join us for an intriguing and far-reaching journey into the past that cannot help but refresh your view of government, politics, and American identity.

To RSVP, please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org