History: Society of the Cincinnati Lecture

"A Serpent, in the Shape of a Spy: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in the Age of Madison"

Tyson Reeder, Assistant Professor of History, Brigham Young University

This lecture is drawn from Professor Reeder’s book Serpent in Eden, which traces early America’s rocky beginnings, when foreign interference and political conflict threatened to undermine its aspirations and ideals, even its very existence. Spanning the period from the Revolution to the War of 1812, and focusing particularly on the career of James Madison, it reveals a nation adjusting to rancorous partisan politics, aggravated by the untested and imperfect new tools of governance and the growing power of media.

Forged in partisan conflict, the United States remains vulnerable to forces that test whether the constitutional system Madison was so central in implementing can withstand outside meddling while accommodating partisan conflict. Madison's successes and failures, along with his original vision of the Constitution and party politics, illuminate the ongoing struggle between domestic polarization and foreign interference.

Dr. Tyson Reeder is a historian of early American politics, constitutionalism, and foreign relations at Brigham Young University. He is a recognized authority on James Madison, most recently authoring Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison’s America. Reeder edited The Routledge History of US Foreign Relations, and wrote Smugglers, Pirates, and Patriots: Free Trade in the Age of Revolution. Before joining the faculty at BYU, he was a faculty member at the University of Virginia, where he was an editor of the Papers of James Madison, with an expertise in Madison’s tenure as secretary of state.

Sponsored by the Department of History.