I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome

to We The People, the weekly show of constitutional debate.

The National Constitution Center is a nonpartisan nonprofit chartered by Congress to increase

awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.

On today's episode, I'm thrilled to share with We the People listeners the genius of a deeply influential figure in American constitutional history,

Mercy Otis Warren.

A poet, writer, and historian,

Warren was a trailblazing woman who influenced the framers

and shaped the nation.

I'm joined by two of America's leading scholars of Merciotis Warren.

Nancy Ruben Stewart is the author of The Muse of the Revolution, the secret pen of Mercy Otis Warren, and the founding of the nation.

She specializes in women's social history and her next book, Poor Richards Women,

Deborah Reed Franklin, and the other women

behind the founding father will be published in February 2022.

What a wonderful subject for your next book, Nancy,

and thank you so much for joining.

It's my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.

And Rose Marie Zagari is university professor at George Mason University

where she specializes in early American history.

She is the author of a woman's dilemma,

Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution,

which is part of the American Biographical History Series.

...