Background
Ketcham, Ralph was born on October 28, 1927 in Berea, Ohio, United States. Son of Sherman G. and Laura (Murphy) Ketcham.
( Restored to its original splendor, Montpelier is now a ...)
Restored to its original splendor, Montpelier is now a national shrine, but before Montpelier became a place of study and tribute, it was a home. Often kept from it by the business of the young nation, James and Dolley Madison could finally take up permanent residence when they retired from Washington in 1817. Their lifelong friend Thomas Jefferson predicted that, at Montpelier, the retiring Madison could return to his "books and farm, to tranquility, and independence," that he would be released "from incessant labors, corroding anxieties, active enemies, and interested friends." As the celebrated historian Ralph Ketcham shows, this would turn out to be only partly true. Although the Madisons were no longer in Washington, Dolley continued to take part in its social scene from afar, dominating it just as she had during Jefferson’s and her husband’s administrations, commenting on people and events there and advising the multitude of young people who thought of her as the creator of society life in the young republic. James maintained a steady correspondence about public questions ranging from Native American affairs, slavery, and utopian reform to religion and education. He also took an active role at the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-30, in the defeat of nullification, and in the establishment of the University of Virginia, of which he was the rector for eight years after Jefferson’s death. Exploring Madison’s role in these post-presidential issues reveals a man of extraordinary intellectual vitality and helps us to better understand Madison’s political thought. His friendships with figures such as Jefferson, James Monroe, and the Marquis de Lafayette--as well as his assessment of them (he outlived them all)--shed valuable light on the nature of the republic they had all helped found. In their last years, James and Dolley Madison personified the republican institutions and culture of the new nation--James as the father of the Constitution and its chief propounder for nearly half a century, and Dolley as the creator of the role of "First Lady." Anything but uneventful, the retirement period at Montpelier should be seen as a crucial element in our understanding of this remarkable couple.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813931045/?tag=2022091-20
(Although the last half of the twentieth century has been ...)
Although the last half of the twentieth century has been called the Age of Democracy, the twenty-first has already demonstrated the fragility of its apparent triumph as the dominant form of government throughout the world. Reassessing the fate of democracy for our time, distinguished political theorist Ralph Ketcham traces the evolution of this idea over the course of four hundred years. He traces democracy's bumpy ride in a book that is both an exercise in the history of ideas and an explication of democratic theory. Ketcham examines the rationales for democratic government, identifies the fault lines that separate democracy from good government, and suggests ways to strengthen it in order to meet future challenges. Drawing on an encyclopedic command of history and politics, he examines the rationales that have been offered for democratic government over the course of four manifestations of modernity that he identifies in the Western and East Asian world since 1600. Ketcham first considers the fundamental axioms established by theorists of the Enlightenment—Bacon, Locke, Jefferson—and reflected in America's founding, then moves on to the mostly post-Darwinian critiques by Bentham, Veblen, Dewey, and others that produced theories of the liberal corporate state. He explains late-nineteenth-century Asian responses to democracy as the third manifestation, grounded in Confucian respect for communal and hierarchical norms, followed by late-twentieth-century postmodernist thought that views democratic states as oppressive and seeks to empower marginalized groups. Ketcham critiques the first, second, and fourth modernity rationales for democracy and suggests that the Asian approach may represent a reconciliation of ancient wisdom and modern science better suited to today's world. He advocates a reorientation of democracy that de-emphasizes group or identity politics and restores the wholeness of the civic community, proposing a return to the Jeffersonian universalism—that which informed the founding of the United States-if democracy is to flourish in a fifth manifestation. The Idea of Democracy in the Modern Era is an erudite, interdisciplinary work of great breadth and complexity that looks to the past in order to reframe the future. With its global overview and comparative insights, it will stimulate discussion of how democracy can survive—and thrive—in the coming era.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/070061334X/?tag=2022091-20
( The best one volume biography of Madison’s life, Ketcha...)
The best one volume biography of Madison’s life, Ketcham’s biography not only traces Madison’s career, it gives readers a sense of the man. As Madison said of his early years in Virginia under the study of Donald Robertson, who introduced him to thinkers like Montaigne and Montesquieu, "all that I have been in life I owe largely to that man." It also captures a side of Madison that is less rarely on display (including a portrait of the beautiful Dolley Madison).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813912652/?tag=2022091-20
(In Marbury v. Madison Chief Justice John Marshall defined...)
In Marbury v. Madison Chief Justice John Marshall defined the Constitution as "a superior, paramount law," one that superseded the laws passed by Congress and state legislatures. What makes it paramount? This book sets out to recover the enduring principles, purposes, and meanings that inform the founders' charter and continue to offer us political guidance more than 200 years later. In so doing it steers a middle course between "originalists" who constrict interpretation to constitutional specifics and "relativists" who adapt the Constitution to the moment by ignoring original meaning. "Original intent," Ralph Ketcham argues, is best discerned by a study of the political climate that nourished the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and, more particularly, by understanding the broader meanings, intentions, and purposes of the framers. To recover this full context of political thinking, Ketcham delves not only into the meaning of the documents but also into the connotations of the framers' vocabulary, the reasoning behind both accepted and rejected propositions, arguments for and against, and unstated assumptions. In his analysis the fundamental or enduring principles are republicanism, liberty, public good, and federalism (as part of the broader doctrine of balance of powers). Ketcham answers convincingly those who question the relevance to modern constitutional interpretation of the finding that the founders were both republican and liberal. He asserts that the rights-protecting character of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights derived from the founders' belief that private rights depended upon active government and public virtue. In other words, private liberties rested on the citizenry's right to self-governance. James Madison sought to ensure a system of government that would serve as guardian "both of public Good and of private rights." In providing an interpretation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that incorporates both republican and liberal perspectives, Ketcham should find a wide readership among politically active citizens, lawyers, judges, and those who teach and study constitutional law and political theory.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700605916/?tag=2022091-20
(George Washington's vision was a presidency free of party...)
George Washington's vision was a presidency free of party, a republican, national office that would transcend faction. That vision would remain strong in the administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, yet largely disappear under Andrew Jackson and his successors. This book is a comprehensive and pathbreaking study of the early presidency and the ideals behind it. Ralph Ketcham examines the roots of nonpartisan leadership in Western thought and the particular influences on the founding fathers. Intellectual and political profiles of the first six presidents and their administrations emphasize the construction each put on the office, the challenges he faced, and the compromises he did and did not make. The erosion of nonpartisanship under Andrew Jackson is presented as a counterpoint that helps define the early presidency and the permanent transition from it. Addressing the thoughtful citizen as well as the scholar, the author poses the fundamental questions about presidential leadership, then and now. The best study of the early presidency, this book is an intellectual portrait of the age that will challenge received notions of American history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080784179X/?tag=2022091-20
(In the spirit of recent works such as Habits of the Heart...)
In the spirit of recent works such as Habits of the Heart and The Closing of the American Mind, Ralph Ketcham's Individualism and Public Life asks whether the individualism which has made possible so many of the material advances we enjoy may also be the cause of the shortcomings troubling our society today. By tracing the development of individualism from its origins in classical and Judeo-Christian traditions, and enlisting the insights of East Asian cultures, Ketcham re-evaluates the individualism which characterizes contemporary American society. He then poses a new politics of the public interest, including revised ideas of citizenship, leadership, and decision-making in a grand attempt to reconcile the individualism of American liberalism with a healthy conception of public life.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0631157735/?tag=2022091-20
history professor political science professor
Ketcham, Ralph was born on October 28, 1927 in Berea, Ohio, United States. Son of Sherman G. and Laura (Murphy) Ketcham.
AB, Allegheny College, 1949. Doctor of Letters (honorary), Allegheny College, 1985. Master of Arts, Colgate University, 1952.
Doctor of Philosophy, Syracuse University, 1956. Doctor of Literature (honorary), Syracuse University, 1999. Doctor of Literature (honorary), McKendree College, 1988.
Research associate, University of Chicago, l956-60; lecturer history, Yale University, New Haven, l96l-63; professor of history and political science, Syracuse (New York) U., l963-97; professor emeritus, Syracuse (New York) U., since 1997. Fulbright lecturer, Japan, l965, India, l974, Netherlands, l987.
(In the spirit of recent works such as Habits of the Heart...)
(Although the last half of the twentieth century has been ...)
( Restored to its original splendor, Montpelier is now a ...)
( The best one volume biography of Madison’s life, Ketcha...)
(George Washington's vision was a presidency free of party...)
(Text book developed in the center for Instructional Devle...)
(In Marbury v. Madison Chief Justice John Marshall defined...)
Member of the United States framework committee Civitas, 1988-1990, Hungarian committee, 1992-1993, Russian committee 1993-1994. With United States Coast Guard, 1945-1947. Member Organisation American Historians, American Studies Association, American Antiquarian Society, Institute Early American History and Culture (county l986-88).
Married Julia Stillwell, November 30, 1958. Children: Benjamin, Laura Lee.