Rate My Professor Luigi Marco Bassani

Luigi Marco Bassani, born in Hinsdale, Illinois, on May 30, 1963, and holding dual Italian and United States citizenship, is Full Professor of History of Political Thought at Pegaso Telematic University since March 2024. He earned a degree in Political Science with honors (110/110 cum laude) from the University of Pisa in 1989 and a PhD from the Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e di Perfezionamento Sant’Anna in Pisa in 1995, focusing his dissertation on the political and constitutional theory of John C. Calhoun. Between 1992 and 1993, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Bassani's academic career includes a post-doctoral fellowship in 1997-1998, followed by service as Assistant Professor of History of Political Thought at the University of Milan from 1998 to 2006, Associate Professor from 2006 to 2016, and Full Professor in the Department of International, Legal, Historical, and Political Studies from January 2017. At the Università della Svizzera italiana, he teaches History of Political Theory and History of Contemporary Political Thought in the Bachelor in Philosophy program.

Bassani's research specializations include American political thought from the Revolution to the Civil War, revolutionary syndicalism, classical liberalism, Machiavellian historiography, and the social philosophy of the Austrian School of economics. His major publication is Liberty, State, & Union: The Political Theory of Thomas Jefferson (Mercer University Press, 2010), which analyzes Jefferson's commitments to individual rights and states' rights. He co-authored Dalla polis allo Stato: Introduzione alla storia del pensiero politico with Alberto Mingardi. Other key works encompass 'Jefferson, Calhoun and States' Rights: The Uneasy Europeanization of American Politics' (Telos, 1999) and 'Life, Liberty, and ...: Jefferson on Property Rights' (2004). Bassani has been a fellow at the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and has given public lectures, including 'Lo Stato, Spoliazione e legge' at the Università della Svizzera italiana.