Texas Tech University

Dr. John Fonte

Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for American Common Culture, Hudson Institute.

John Fonte is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for American Common Culture at the Hudson Institute. He is the author of Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others?, winner of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's Paolucci-Bagehot book award for 2012 and a number-one rated Amazon best-seller in international law. Fonte's ideas on "lawfare" were cited in the annual New York Times Magazine's "Year in Ideas" as among the most noteworthy of 2004.

Fonte's essays on citizenship, history, civic education, immigrant assimilation, civil rights, patriotism, global organizations, American sovereignty, and liberal democracy have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Orbis, National Review, The National Interest, Policy Review, Commentary and in LeFigaro (France), Nativ (Israel), Opinio (Netherlands), Perfiles Liberales (Mexico), Policy Review (Australia) and elsewhere.

He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, France 24 Live News, Voice of America, News Talk TV, Bloomberg TV. Fonte served as a senior researcher at the U.S. Department of Education and a program administrator at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

Fonte has testified before Congress on immigration, assimilation, citizenship and civil rights issues. He has served as a consultant for the Texas Education Agency, the Virginia Department of Education, the California Academic Standards Commission, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania. He was a member of the steering committee for the congressionally-mandated National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) which issued the "nation's report card" on civics and government.

Fonte served as principal advisor for CIVITAS: A Framework for Civic Education funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and he was appointed by the general editor to write the chapter on The Federalist Papers. He has taught at the higher education and secondary school levels. He is co-editor of Education for America's Role in World Affairs (University Press), a book on civic and world affairs education used in universities and teacher training institutes.

He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago, and his M.A. and B.A. in history from the University of Arizona.

Dr. Fonte's interview was held at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, November 21, 2013.