An Evening with Jeffrey Rosen, Moderated by Hank Meijer
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Join us at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum on Thursday, March 5, for an engaging evening with Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, as he discusses his latest book, The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America.
Rosen will explore how the competing visions of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson shaped the nation’s earliest debates over liberty, federal power, and the role of government—arguments that continue to influence American democracy today. Drawing on history, law, and constitutional principles, his talk offers timely insight into the enduring tensions at the heart of the American experiment.
The conversation will be moderated by Hank Meijer, trustee of the Ford Presidential Foundation, and will include time for audience questions.
Details on Attending
Where
Ford Presidential Museum
303 Pearl St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
When
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Private Friends of Ford Reception: 5:30 p.m. (For those with Lieutenant Commander membership level and above.)
Program: 6:30 p.m.
Book signing to follow the event.
Program Supporters
In partnership with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum and the Secchia Family Foundation, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation is proud to bring Jeffrey Rosen to Grand Rapids.
Watch the Livestream
JEFFREY ROSEN is the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, where he hosts We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He was previously the legal affairs editor of The New Republic and a staff writer for the New Yorker.
Rosen’s new book, Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle over Power in America, is out in October 2025. His other books include New York Times bestsellers The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America and Conversations with RBG: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Life, Love, Liberty, and Law, as well as biographies of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft.
Rosen is a graduate of Harvard College; Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar; and Yale Law School. He is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Law Institute. In 2024, the French government recognized him as a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
HANK MEIJER is executive chairman of Meijer, Inc, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He joined the family retail business as a grocery clerk at the age of eleven.
After graduating from the University of Michigan he served as editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper in Plymouth, Michigan before rejoining Meijer in 1979 as assistant advertising director.
Hank’s first book, a biography of his grandfather, Hendrik Meijer, appeared in 1985. His second, a biography of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, was published in 2017 by University of Chicago Press.
He is vice chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and serves on the executive committees of the Food Marketing Institute and the National Constitution Center.
He is a member of the Mackinac Island State Parks Commission and a trustee of the Kettering Foundation.
