One Man's Freedom: The Struggle Over an American Ideal featuring Nicholas Buccola

Thursday, November 13, 2025
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Alumni, Community, Faculty, Staff, Students

Come hear the dramatic untold story of Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King Jr.’s decade-long clash over the meaning of freedom and how their conflicting visions still divide American politics. Join us as we explore what this historical clash of ideals can teach us about the meaning - and practice - of freedom.

The Hauenstein Center welcomes Dr. Buccola to campus in partnership with Grand Valley’s Department of Political Science.

About Nicholas Buccola

Nicholas Buccola is a writer, lecturer, and teacher who specializes in the area of American political thought. He is the author of One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle over an American Ideal, which has been published by Princeton University Press in October 2025. His previous books include The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America (Princeton University Press, 2019) and The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (New York University Press, 2012). He is the editor of The Essential Douglass: Writings and Speeches (Hackett, 2016) and Abraham Lincoln and Liberal Democracy (University Press of Kansas, 2016).

Nicholas is the Dr. Jules K. Whitehill Professor of Humanism and Ethics in the Department of Government at Claremont McKenna College. His essays have appeared in scholarly journals including The Review of Politics and American Political Thought as well as popular outlets such as The New York Times, Salon, The Baltimore Sun, and Dissent.

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Location Information

Charles W. Loosemore Auditorium, DeVos Center

Contact Information

[email protected]

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This event was added to the calendar by Kahler Sweeney (sweenkah@gvsu.edu) on Monday, August 11, 2025 and was last updated on Monday, November 10, 2025 at 12:09 p.m.

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