William B. Allen

Senior Scholar in Residence, Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, University of Colorado

William B. Allen, emeritus professor of political philosophy in the Department of Political Science and emeritus dean, James Madison College, at Michigan State University, was the 2018–20 Senior Scholar in Residence in the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado. He served on the US National Council for the Humanities and as chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights. He is chief operating officer at the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. His books include Re-Thinking Uncle Tom: The Political Philosophy of H. B. Stowe and George Washington: America’s First Progressive.

Photo of professor William B. Allen. He is an African American man, seated in a room with many shelves behind him full of books of all sizes. He is smiling. He is a bald man, with some salt and pepper short facial hair and he wears eyeglasses. In this photo he is wearing a gray v-neck sweater with a black turtle neck shirt underneath it.
William B. Allen

Written by William B. Allen

  • Photo of a purple mailing envelope for mailing in an election ballot. In front of the envelope, where the address is printed, is a blue demin homemade face mask used during the Covid-19 pandemic to cast their votes in the 2020 elections.

    2020: Year of Destiny

    Though Americans in 2020 felt the weight every day of a global pandemic, in the end they endured. What was harder to appreciate at the time was the pandemic's long-lasting impact on American politics—and democracy itself.