Rasmussen speaks to Bloomberg about the Founders' disillusionment

March 26, 2021

Bloomberg,Christianity Today

Dennis C. Rasmussen

Political Science Department

State & Local

United States

Bloomberg

Christianity Today

Dennis C. Rasmussen

In his new book, “Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders” (Princeton University Press, 2021), Dennis Rasmussen, professor of political science, grapples with the founding generation’s deep and abiding doubts about their experiment. He was interviewed for the Bloomberg article, "Even America’s Founders Were Disillusioned With America." "One could take the founders’ disillusionment in either direction," says Rasmussen. "On the one hand, their deepest causes for worry—extreme partisanship, an ineffective federal government, a lack of civic virtue, sectional divisions within the country—are very much still with us. That they’ve been here from the beginning suggests that they aren’t likely to go away any time soon," he says. "On the other hand, the Constitution has endured for more than 230 years despite these problems, suggesting that they're less likely to doom the republic than we often fear."

Rasmussen was also interviewed for the Christianity Today article, "Interview with Dennis Rasmussen, Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America’s Founders."