Claremont McKenna College will serve as backdrop for a comprehensive, two-day seminar reflecting on California 150 years after the State's entry into the Union. "Democracy in California: Sesquicentennial Reflections on Equality and Liberty in the Golden State." Conference participants will examine enduring issues of California public life, including race, immigration, constitutional history, and the California character. It will be held October 27-28 at Bauer Center and the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, both on the campus of Claremont McKenna College.
"If that preeminent foreign student of America, Alexis de Tocqueville, had made his way to California, he would have enriched his classic Democracy in America," said Dr. Ken Masugi, Director of the Claremont Institute's Center for State and Local Government and conference organizer. "From its birth in the Compromise of 1850, California has struggled with national themes of American democratic life."
Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee will be the keynote speaker. Among the 30 other conference speakers are author Dinesh D'Souza; assemblymen Tom McClintock and Keith Olberg; historian Herman Belz; Martha Bayles, Charles Kesler, Jack Pitney, Ralph Rossum, and Peter Skerry of Claremont McKenna College; and classicist and farmer Victor Davis Hanson.
This seminar is organized by the Claremont Institute and is jointly sponsored by the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World and the Rose Institute of State and Local Government, two research institutes of Claremont McKenna College. A full schedule of speakers and events may be viewed at http://www.claremont.org/Events/sesquicentennial.cfm.
This event is free and open to the public. Those who are not affiliated with the Claremont Colleges are advised to contact Dr. Ken Masugi, Director, Center for Local Government. Dr. Masugi may be reached at 909-621-6824, ext. 102 or at kmasugi@claremont.org. The symposium will be held in the Founders' Room, Bauer Center, 500 East Ninth Street, Claremont McKenna College.
The Claremont Institute is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) public policy research organization whose mission is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.
Claremont McKenna College is a highly selective, independent liberal arts college, educating leaders in business and public affairs. CMC enrolls 1,000 students and is a member of The Claremont Colleges. CMC sponsors nine research institute including the Rose Institute for State and Local Government and the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World.