Criminals Think, but Thinking is No Crime by William B. Allen

An esteemed historian, author, and political scientist, William B. Allen is professor emeritus of political science in the Department of Political Philosophy and emeritus dean of James Madison College at Michigan State University. He was the 2018–2020 senior scholar in residence in the Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado, and he previously taught at Villanova University, Ashland University, and Harvey Mudd College.

He served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1988 to 1989 and has been a Kellogg National Fellow, Fulbright Fellow, and a member of the National Council on the Humanities. He has also served as the director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and as COO of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. His research focuses on the “national character,” an idea propounded by George Washington, and on probing the sources of fragmentation among American citizens while striving to renew the principles of civic unity. He has published several books, including George Washington: America’s First Progressive and Rethinking Uncle Tom: The Political Philosophy of H.B. Stowe. He is the editor of George Washington: A Collection and The Essential Antifederalist and has published numerous scholarly articles on political philosophy and American political thought. He received his B.A. from Pepperdine College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University.