History Pub – The American Revolution & The Paradox of Freedom Presented by Seth Cotlar

Grand Lodge Theater
3505 Pacific Ave

Forest Grove, Oregon 97116

Wednesday May 14th, 2025
Doors 6:00PM / Event 7:00PM

When America’s revolutionary founders created the Constitution, they thought long and hard about a central paradox in modern political theory: liberty cannot exist without a strong government to secure individual rights, yet unchecked governmental power poses a threat to liberty. Professor Seth Cotlar will explore how the paradoxical relationship between liberty and power has inflected the meaning of American freedom from our country’s origins up to our present moment in history.     

Seth Cotlar is a professor of history at Willamette University where he teaches courses on the American Revolution, the history of anti-democracy in America, the history and memory of slavery, and the history of American conservatism.