Jack N. Rakove (born 1947) is an American historian, author, professor at Stanford University, and Pulitzer Prize winner. He earned his A.B. in 1968 from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in 1975 from Harvard University. At Harvard, he was a student of Bernard Bailyn. Rakove was born in Chicago to Political Science Professor Milton L. Rakove (1918-1983) and his wife, Shirley. Milton Rakove was also a political consultant and the author of two books on Chicago politics. Jack Rakove is the W.R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies and professor of political science at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1980. He also taught at Colgate University from 1975 to 1980 and has been a visiting professor at the NYU School of Law. He won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for History for Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution (Alfred Knopf, 1996, ISBN 0-679-78121-8) which cast serious doubt on whether originalism is a viable theory of interpreting the Constitution. He is also the author of The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress (Alfred Knopf, 1979), James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (revised edition, Addison, Wesley, Longman, 2001), and Declaring Rights: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford Books, 1997). Rakove served as Chelsea Clinton's thesis adviser at Stanford. [1] Rakove is brother to Roberta Rakove, a well-known governmental relations expert in the Chicago and national healthcare system.
