Biography

David C. Hendrickson has taught at Colorado College since 1983, and was chair of the Political Science department from 2000 to 2003. Hendrickson received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) in 1982. He teaches courses in American foreign policy and international relations.

Hendrickson is the author of seven books, including Union, Nation, or Empire: The American Debate over International Relations, 1789-1941 (2009) and Peace Pact: The Lost World of the American Founding (2003), both published by the University Press of Kansas.

Regular courses offered include PS209 Introduction to International Politics, PS 396 Foundations of American Constitutionalism and Diplomacy, PS 397 Interpretations of American Diplomacy, PS 398 Origins of the Modern State System, PS 399 Theories of the Contemporary International System, and PS 410 Tutorial in International Relations.

He attended Colorado College from 1971 to 1976, taking a year off after sophomore year. Although a History major, he took many courses in the Political Science department, to which he returned as a teacher in 1983. He received tenure at Colorado College in 1989, became a full professor in 1996, and was Robert J. Fox Distinguished Service Professor from 2004 to 2009.

Hendrickson attended graduate school at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and has written three books with his former professor at Hopkins, Robert W. Tucker, including The Imperial Temptation: The New World Order and America’s Purpose (Council on Foreign Relations, 1992), Empire of Liberty: The Statecraft of Thomas Jefferson (nominated by Oxford University Press for a Pulitzer Prize, 1990), and The Fall of the First British Empire: Origins of the War of American Independence (Johns Hopkins, 1982). He is also the author of The Future of American Strategy (Holmes and Meier, 1987) and Reforming Defense: The State of American Civil-Military Relations (Johns Hopkins, 1988).

Hendrickson was the Whitney Shephardson fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in 1991-92. He has received fellowships from the The Lehrman Institute, the Olin Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy. He served on the editorial board of Ethics and International Affairs from 1994 to 1999. His Peace Pact was named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice magazine.

He directs the journalism minor at Colorado College.

He was a book reviewer (“United States”) for Foreign Affairs (from 1994 to 1998) and has published essays in a variety of foreign policy journals, including World Policy Journal, Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, Ethics and International Affairs, Orbis, and Survival.