The Founding Father's Legacy Series: Unpacking the Complex Truth
The Founding Fathers’ Legacy Series focuses on James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington, who were each pivotal in establishing our Nation’s Capital in what we now know as Washington, D.C. This series of programs include audio podcasts with scholars whose work focuses on various aspects of these three Founding Fathers.
In this segment, Michael Steele (former RNC Chairman, MSNBC Political Analyst, and former Lt. Gov. of Maryland) and former D.C. Mayor and IPPH Founding Director Sharon Pratt will moderate an engaging conversation with scholars to help us unpack the legacy of George Washington.
Speaker Biographies
Fergus Bordewich
Fergus Bordewich is an independent writer, historian, and journalist. He wrote the script for a PBS documentary about Thomas Jefferson and the founding of the University of Virginia: Mr. Jefferson's University. He is the author of eight books, including The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government (2016); and Washington: The Making of the American Capital (2008).
Lindsay M. Chervinsky
Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, and is working on a forthcoming book on John Adams.
Rohulamin Quander
Rohulamin Quander traces his lineage back almost 350 years in Maryland and Virginia. His family’s history includes involuntary servitude to George Washington at Mount Vernon. He earned both his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Howard University and he is a retired Senior Administrative Judge for the District of Columbia. He is the author of four books, including his most recent, The Quanders, which recounts the history of his family from the 17th century to the present.
Patrick Spero
Patrick Spero is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. He recently arrived at Mount Vernon after serving as Librarian and Director of the Library & Museum of the American Philosophical Society (APS) in Philadelphia. He is the author of Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania (2016), Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West (2018), and Botany and Betrayal: Andre Michaux, Thomas Jefferson, and the Kentucky Conspiracy of 1793, which will be released in 2024.
This annual event is held in partnership with the Institute of Politics Policy and History, which is housed at the University of the District of Columbia, to encourage constructive, spirited dialogue around the issues of the day; illuminating these conversations with insights from our city and nation's history.