Kevin R. Constantine Gutzman (; born May 20, 1963) is an American

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

scholar and historian. He is Professor of History at

Western Connecticut State University Western Connecticut State University (WCSU and WestConn) is a public university in Danbury, Connecticut. It was founded in 1903 as a teacher's college and is part of the Connecticut State University System. WCSU consists of four schools: the A ...

Biography

Gutzman holds a B.A. from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

(1985); a J.D. from the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Texas at Austin, a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas. According to Texas Law’s American Bar ...

(1990), a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas (1990), and an M.A. (1994) and the PhD (1999) in history from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. In addition to scholarly articles, Gutzman has written scholarly books including, ''Virginia’s American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840'' in which he argues that it was the intense commitment of politically active Virginians that led them not only to break away from Britain, but to then produce the first state constitution based on a

bill of rights A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...

. He further argued that the Virginians who ratified the United States Constitution in 1788 understood it as a revocable agreement entered into by 13

sovereign state A sovereign state is a State (polity), state that has the highest authority over a territory. It is commonly understood that Sovereignty#Sovereignty and independence, a sovereign state is independent. When referring to a specific polity, the ter ...

s. Gutzman's works for a popular audience include ''The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution,'' which was named one of the "Top Ten Conservative Books of 2007" by Human Events, and ''Who Killed the Constitution?''

Books

* ''The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution'' (Washington, DC: Regenery Publishing, 2007). * ''Virginia’s American Revolution: From Dominion to Republic, 1776-1840'' (Maryland: Lexington Books, 2007) * ''Who Killed the Constitution? The Federal Government vs. American Liberty from World War I to Barack Obama'', co-authored with

Thomas Woods Thomas Ernest Woods Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American author, podcast host, and libertarian commentator who is currently a senior fellow at the Mises Institute.Naji FilaliInterview with Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Harvard Political Review, A ...

(New York: Crown Forum, 2008) * ''James Madison and the Making of America'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2012) * ''Thomas Jefferson - Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2015) * ''The Jeffersonians: The Visionary Presidencies of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2022)

2008 Presidential Election

On a 2012 radio show of pundit Mike Church, Gutzman stated that he voted for

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in the

2008 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John Mc ...

, which upset some fans of Church's show. "I voted for Obama," said Gutzman, "because he was the only one promising to end the wars, and he didn't do it, but that's the reason why." Church responded to angry listeners in defense of Gutzman, pointing out that McCain in particular and the Republican Party in general were, from Gutzman's as well as his own perspective, hardly "lesser evils."

References

External links

Kevin Gutzman's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutzman, Kevin Living people 21st-century American historians Historians of Colonial North America Historians of the United States Historians of Virginia Human Events people National Review people American political writers American male non-fiction writers American scholars of constitutional law 1963 births Western Connecticut State University faculty University of Texas at Austin alumni University of Virginia alumni People from Bethel, Connecticut Historians from Connecticut