Robert Martin
Chair, Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Government
Robert Martin is the author of Government By Dissent: Protest, Resistance, and Radical Democratic Thought in the Early American Republic and The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty. He co-edited, with Hamilton Professor Douglas Ambrose, The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father. Martin's work has appeared in History of Political Thought, Polity and elsewhere. A recipient of the Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award, Martin has held research fellowships at the New-York Historical Society and the American Antiquarian Society.
Recent Courses Taught
American Founding: Ideals and Reality
Civil Liberties in Wartime
Democratic Theory
Introduction to Political Theory
Free Speech Theory
Contemporary Political Thought
Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment
American Political Thought
Distinctions
- Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award, May 2004
- Finalist, Carnegie Scholars Program, Carnegie Corporation, 2004
- Research Fellowship, New-York Historical Society (in residence, March 2003)
Selected Publications
- Government by Dissent: Protest, Resistance, and Radical Democratic Thought in the Early American Republic. New York: New York University Press, 2013.
- The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America’s Most Elusive Founding Father. Co-edited with Douglas Ambrose. New York: New York University Press, 2006 [paperback, 2007].
- The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty, 1640-1800. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
- “The ‘Censorship of Public Opinion’: James Madison, the Sedition Act Crisis, and Democratic Press Liberty,” in Censorship Moments: Reading Censorship Texts, ed. Geoff Kemp. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
- “In a peaceful and orderly manner". Town meetings and people’s assemblies at the time of the founding of the United States” in Participations. De Boeck Supérieur, (2016): 175 - 202.
- “James Madison and Popular Government: The Neglected Case of ‘The Memorial,’” Polity 42 (April 2010): 185-209. [cover article]
- “‘With Good Motives, For Justifiable Ends’: Hamilton and Democratic Citizenship,” in Ambrose and Martin, eds., The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton (New York: New York University Press, 2006).
- “Between Consensus and Conflict: Habermas, Postmodern Agonism and the Early American Public Sphere,” Polity 37 (July 2005): 365-388.
- “Reforming Republicanism: Alexander Hamilton’s Theory of Republican Citizenship and Press Liberty,” The Journal of the Early Republic 25 (Spring 2005): 21-46.
- “Context and Contradiction: Toward a Political Theory of Conceptual Change,” Political Research Quarterly, 50 (1997): 413-436.
- “From the ‘Free and Open’ Press to the ‘Press of Freedom’: Liberalism, Republicanism, and Early American Press Liberty,” History of Political Thought, XV (1994): 505-534.
- “Book Review: British Political Thought in History, Literature, and Theory, 1500-1800 and Rethinking the Foundation of Modern Political Thought,” Perspectives on Politics, 5 (2007): 803-4.
- “Press Clause: Framing and History from Colonial Period up to Modern Jurisprudence,” commissioned article (5000 words), for Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties (Routledge, 4 vols., 2006).
- “Freedom of the Press,” commissioned article (2000 words), for Encyclopedia of the New American Nation (Scribners, 2005).
- “Book Review: Dreams of a More Perfect Union by Rogan Kersh,” American Political Science Review, 96 (2002): 642-3.
- “Logic and Logistics in the History of Ideas: Mark Bevir, The Logic of the History of Ideas,” Review of Politics, 63:1 (Winter, 2001): 196-7.
- “Book Review: Emancipation and Illusion: Rationality and Gender in Habermas’s Theory of Modernity by Marie Fleming,” American Political Science Review, 92 (1998): 929-30.
- “Between Rosanvallon and Rancière: Toward a Theory of Dissentient Democracy,” Contrastes: Revista Internacional de Filosofía, special English language edition, expected 2015.
College Service
- Planning Committee, 2013-present
- Government Department chair, 2009-13
- Committee on Appointments, 2009-11
- Re-accreditation working group on Standard 6: Integrity, 2009-11
- Director, semester in Washington program, fall 2005 and fall 2008
- Committee on Academic Standing, 2004-07
- Committee on Student Activities, 2002-03
- Pre-Law Committee, 2002-present
- Phi Beta Kappa chapter member, 1997-present
Appointed to the Faculty
1997Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
B.A., University of Connecticut
