ASU to Host Free Lecture on the Declaration of Independence

SAN ANGELO, TX - Angelo State University will present Dr. C. Bradley Thompson, a professor of political science at Clemson University, as the featured speaker for the 2026 E. James Holland Symposium on American Values on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 5 p.m. in the Carr Education-Fine Arts (EFA) Building, 2602 Dena Drive.

Titled "British Tyranny and American Freedom: The Story of the Declaration of Independence," Thompson's presentation will take place in the EFA Building's Eldon Black Recital Hall and is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

During his presentation, Thompson will discuss the principal ideas of the Declaration of Independence in the context of British treatment of the American colonists and how these ideas remain relevant in our own context.

Also the executive director of the Snow Institute for the Study of Capitalism at Clemson University, Thompson's research, writing and teaching focus on the history of political philosophy with a special emphasis on American political thought. His most recent book, "America's Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration that Defined It," has been described as a "masterpiece" and as the most important book on the intellectual history of the American Revolution since the publication of Bernard Bailyn's "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" (1967) and Gordon S. Wood's "Creation of the American Republic" (1969).

Thompson has also lectured around the country on various topics, and his op-ed essays have appeared in scores of newspapers in the U.S. and abroad. His lectures on the political thought of John Adams and the Declaration of Independence have been broadcast on C-SPAN.

A native of Ontario, Canada, Thompson has also served as the Garwood Family Professor in the James Madison Program at Princeton University, a John Adams Fellow in the Institute of United States Studies at the University of London, and a Fellow of the Program in Constitutional Studies at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from Brown University.

The Holland Symposium is named in honor of its creator, Dr. E. James Holland, retired dean of the former ASU College of Liberal and Fine Arts. It is designed to bring the ASU community and the public together to reflect on issues related to the country's values. Since its inception in 1984, the symposium has brought more than 50 nationally prominent figures to the ASU campus to spark discussion on a wide variety of topics.