On Monday, April 21, at 7 p.m., Northwood University’s Forum for Citizenship & Enterprise will host Steven Kautz who will discuss the topic “Lincoln’s ‘Deadly Moderation’: Was the Civil War a ‘Remorseless Revolutionary Struggle.’” The lecture will take place in Griswold Lecture Hall on Northwood University’s Midland campus located at 4000 Whiting Drive. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and members of the community are invited to attend this free event.Kautz received his bachelor of arts degree from Michigan State University in 1981 where he was awarded the Harry S. Truman Scholarship in 1979. He received his doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, Committee on Social Thought in 1989. Kautz is associate dean for academic and student affairs in the College of Social Science and associate professor in the department of political science at Michigan State University. He teaches undergraduate and doctorate courses on modern political philosophy, American political thought, liberalism, constitutionalism, comparative constitutionalism and British politics.
He is the author of “Liberalism and Community,” a defense of the classical liberalism of Locke and Montesquieu against its contemporary critics. Kautz has written more generally about liberalism, including essays on the ideas of toleration, privacy, the rule of law and about the place of liberal education in a liberal society. He recently co-edited an edited volume on The Supreme Court and the Idea of Constitutionalism to which he contributed an essay, “On Liberal Constitutionalism.” Kautz is currently at work on a book on the political thought of Abraham Lincoln, focusing on challenges of democratic statesmanship. His essay on “Abraham Lincoln: The Moderation of a Democratic Statesman” appears in History of American Political Thought (ed. Bryan-Paul Frost and Jeffrey Sikkenga).
Questions about the event may be directed to Mariana Grigoras, associate professor and chair of social sciences/humanities, at 989.837.4253 or .
