A person sitting in a chair.
Author of the award-winning book "American Character," Colin Woodard is visiting BGSU to give a public lecture on the delicate balance between individual liberty and the common good. (supplied photo)

Acclaimed author Colin Woodard to visit BGSU for public lecture on his award-winning book “American Character”

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Woodard will discuss the struggle between individual liberty and the common good

As one of the most respected authorities on how America’s colonial past shapes the present, award-winning journalist and acclaimed author Colin Woodard will give a public lecture at Bowling Green State University on the delicate balance between individual liberty and the common good, as outlined in his groundbreaking book “American Character.”

Woodard has spoken extensively on the topic across the United States and overseas and will deliver an inspiring keynote for the first time in northwestern Ohio at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 10 in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union multi-purpose room.

“I'm so pleased to be speaking at an institution that puts the common good at the center of its identity,” Woodard said.

The event, which is free and open to the public, underscores the University’s commitment to advancing knowledge of the learning and greater community through dynamic and thought-provoking conversations. As a comprehensive public university, BGSU regularly provides opportunities for students to enhance their education beyond the classroom, exemplified by its ranking as the No. 1 public university in Ohio for student experience.

Woodard is a New York Times bestselling historian and Polk Award-winning journalist, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has spoken for esteemed institutions such as the U.S. Senate, Smithsonian and European Parliament.

“American Character: The Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good” is a Chautauqua Prize Finalist and winner of the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Non-Fiction. In the book, Woodard argues that individual liberty and the common good need to be in balance for a liberal democracy to succeed.

“Our politics has been defined by this struggle,” he said. “Do you best execute America’s mission, set down in the Declaration, by emphasizing individual liberty or the common good?”

Woodard is the director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy at Salve Regina University, a private university in Newport, Rhode Island. He is also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a POLITICO contributing writer.

“At Nationhood Lab, we've produced extensive data analysis and peer-reviewed studies that demonstrate how our more communitarian-oriented regions have outperformed the individualistic ones in health, longevity, social cohesion, economics, pandemic survival, deadly gun violence, environmental policy and democratic responsiveness,” Woodard said.

“Restoring balance via a greater emphasis on the common good is essential to everyone's future, but college students have a particularly large stake in doing so, as their futures will be profoundly affected by what we do next.” 

Woodard has reported from more than 50 countries and seven continents as a longtime foreign correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Chronicle of Higher Education. His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The Economist, The Washington Post and Newsweek and featured on “CNN,” “PBS NewsHour” and “NPR’s Weekend Edition.”

Woodard has authored six books, including Wall Street Journal bestseller “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America” and “The Republic of Pirates” — a New York Times bestselling history of Blackbeard’s pirate gang that was made into a primetime NBC series.

The event is sponsored by the BGSU Division of Inclusion and Belonging, Division of Student Engagement and Success and the Democracy and Public Policy Research Network.

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Media Contact | Michael Bratton | mbratto@bgsu.edu | 419-372-6349

Updated: 01/27/2025 01:50PM