Originally published on November 18, 2024 (Episode 383)
Introduction
As today’s guest writes in the introduction of her new book Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson, “For more than two hundred years, John Dickinson has suffered from an image problem that no one in his day would have thought possible.” At the time of the American Revolution, this Pennsylvania politician was seen as one of the foremost thinkers on the continent, certainly the foremost proponent of the colonial cause.
But since then his reputational stock has dropped dramatically. Due to his disagreements with the now popular John Adams, Dickinson has been caricatured for over fifty years, from the musical 1776 to HBO drama John Adams. Rarely has anyone sought to understand him on his own terms, or even in ways that his contemporaries might recognize. This conversation aims to change that.
About the Guest
Jane E. Calvert is Founding Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project, which under her guidance has produced three of a projected thirteen volumes of Dickinson’s prolific output. She is also the author of Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson, and the definitive biographer of America’s “penman of the Revolution.”
For Further Investigation
Jane E. Calvert, Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson (OUP, 2024)
—, Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson (Cambridge, 2012)
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Listen & Discuss
Why do some Founders fade into obscurity while others loom large in memory? Share your thoughts—and help rescue John Dickinson from the historical corner by sharing this conversation.
