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Alan E. Johnson

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Philosophy, History, Nonfiction

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Alan E. Johnson, an independent philosopher, historian, political scientist, and legal scholar, is the author of Free Will and Human Life, Reason and Human Ethics, Reason and Human Government, The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience, The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and Proposed Constitutional and Statutory Changes for Direct Popular Vote, 2nd ed., and other publications in the fields of philosophy, history, political science, and law. He holds an A.B. (Political Science) and A.M. (Humanities) from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Cleveland State University College of Law. He retired in 2012 from a long career as an attorney in which he focused mainly, though not exclusively, on consti ...more

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Alan E. Johnson’s books

Average rating: 4.22 · 27 ratings · 19 reviews · 7 distinct works

	The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience 4.30 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Electoral College: Failures of Original Intent and a Proposed Constitutional Amendment for Direct Popular Vote 3.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Free Will and Human Life it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reason and Human Ethics really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	First Philosophy & Human Ethics: A Rational Inquiry really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2000 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience by Alan E. Johnson (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reason and Human Government 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Alan E. Johnson's Blog

The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience

My book The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience is available in paperback and Kindle e-book editions at Amazon websites throughout the world. I have posted errata and supplemental comments here. On August 6, 2015, I was interviewed about Roger Williams and this book. A video of the interview is posted here. This video is part of my YouTube channel regarding Roger W Read more of this blog post »

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Published on August 10, 2015 00:00 • Tags: liberty-of-conscience, providence-rhode-island, rhode-island, roger-williams, separation-of-church-and-state

Alan is Currently Reading

Alan Johnson is currently reading

All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery

by Henry Mayer

bookshelves: currently-reading, ethics, history-american-1820-1865-lincoln, history-american-1876-2000, law-constitutional

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Alan Johnson said: " PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS (so far, I have only read the preface to this book):

This book is acclaimed by historians and others as being the best biography of William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) ever written. Garrison was the radical nineteenth-century aboli PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS (so far, I have only read the preface to this book):

This book is acclaimed by historians and others as being the best biography of William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) ever written. Garrison was the radical nineteenth-century abolitionist who maintained that it was a moral evil to accept the antebellum constitutional compromise over slavery. The original US Constitution contained the (in)famous Three-Fifths Compromise (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, superseded by the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified July 9, 1868) and the Fugitive Slave Clause (Article IV, Section 3, superseded by the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified December 6, 1865).

Henry Mayer captures what may be the essence of Garrison’s approach in the preface (Kindle page xiv) to this biography:

Against the advancing nineteenth-century concept of the American nation as a mystical union which expected deferential allegiance from its citizens as the price of sharing its bounty and grandeur, Garrison counterposed an older eighteenth-century idea: the republican and revolutionary spirit of civil liberty as manifested in a skeptical and assertive citizenry committed to questioning the exercise of power. His career is a landmark in the American dissenting tradition and exemplifies the fault line that in democratic politics separates the insiders, who think progress comes from quiet lobbying within the halls of power, from the outsiders, who insist that only public manifestations of dissatisfaction can overcome institutional inertia. Garrison audaciously believed that a citizen could be more influential by deciding not to vote and that a leader could be more faithful to his constituency by refusing to hold office.

At the founding of the United States, opponents of slavery had to decide whether union was more important than antislavery. An interesting counterfactual would be the following: What if the North and the South had gone their separate ways as two separate nations at the beginning? It is said that only union would have given any hope to enslaved people in the South. Although some Northern states permitted slavery in the late eighteenth century, they gradually abolished slavery in the early years of the republic. Not so in the Southern states. It took a very bloody Civil War to accomplish the nationwide abolition of slavery, and, even so, slavery was transformed into the Jim Crow regime of the South, which lasted until the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. But what, it is asked, would be the other disadvantages of disunion? Would European states have picked away at the fledgling new countries? As with all counterfactuals, it is difficult to determine the answers to such questions. But the questions should be asked, especially by historians and political scientists.

I will supplement or replace the foregoing preliminary review after I have finished reading the book. ...more "

Sep 26, 2026 07:06AM · see review

Alan Johnson is currently reading

The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit

by Randy E. Barnett

bookshelves: a-rhg-reference, law-constitutional, political-science-and-politics, currently-reading

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Sep 24, 2026 08:26AM

Alan Johnson is currently reading

Supremacy: How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People

by Niko Bowie

bookshelves: currently-reading, law-constitutional, political-science-and-politics

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Sep 15, 2026 12:51PM

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Alan Johnson is currently reading All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery by Henry Mayer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS (so far, I have only read the preface to this book): This book is acclaimed by historians and others as being the best biography of William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) ever written. Garrison was the radical nineteenth-century aboli ...more
Sep 26, 2026 06:51AM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of All on Fire by Henry Mayer. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — All on Fire by Henry Mayer <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alan Johnson started reading The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit by Randy E. Barnett	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 24, 2026 08:26AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment by Randy E. Barnett. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment by Randy E. Barnett <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alan Johnson marked as back-burner-reading Nietzsche: The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols: And Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) by Friedrich Nietzsche	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 23, 2026 10:49AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Nietzsche by Friedrich Nietzsche <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Alan Johnson made a comment in the group Political Philosophy and Ethics — Amartya Sen (1933-) topic " I have reviewed Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... ...more "
Sep 23, 2026 10:29AM
Alan Johnson did not finish The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
September 19, 2026: I read the initial pages of Amartya Sen's preface to this book on May 4, 2025, but did not read further at that time. Today I resumed reading the book, starting all over at the beginning of the preface. It is my understanding that ...more
Sep 23, 2026 10:12AM · 2 likes · like · see review
Alan Johnson made a comment in the group Political Philosophy and Ethics — International Law and Politics topic " The New Right’s Approach to US Foreign Policy See this September 21, 2026 New York Times guest essay titled “Western Civilization Will Never Be the Sam ...more "
Sep 22, 2026 11:40AM
Alan Johnson made a comment in the group Political Philosophy and Ethics — International Populist Authoritarianism topic " This September 21, 2026 New York Times gift article discusses right-wing populist authoritarian developments in Germany (with particular reference to ...more "
Sep 22, 2026 11:16AM
Alan Johnson made a comment on Matt McCormick’s review of From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity " Pelagius is one of my heroes (see Alan E. Johnson, Free Will and Human Life, pp. 8-9). I’ll never forgive Augustine for persecuting him. Historical C ...more "
Sep 20, 2026 12:51PM · see review
Alan Johnson liked Matt McCormick's review of From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity: "from Shame to Sin offers the reader an insight into the evolving culture of the Roman Empire from about 200 to 500 CE. Harper has deep knowledge of the period, especially the literature created by Greeks and early Christians. I appreciated being exp" Read more of this review »
Sep 20, 2026 12:18PM · see review
Alan Johnson made a comment in the group Political Philosophy and Ethics — Thucydides (ca. 460 – ca. 400 BCE) topic " Feliks wrote: "Pausanias and Strabo are similar Greeks like this [whereas Herodotus not so much (at least to my taste) because of his tilt towards fan ...more "
Sep 20, 2026 12:11PM

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Quotes by Alan E. Johnson (?)

“Roger Williams died sometime during the early months of 1683. Some of what he said and wrote during his lifetime belongs to the seventeenth century. But much of his historical and philosophical record speaks to us across the centuries.”
― Alan E. Johnson

tags: freedom-of-conscience, liberty-of-conscience, religious-freedom, roger-williams, separation-of-church-and-state

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“The first questions naturally raised by a person emerging from the fog of childhood are the same questions that led Aristotle and other great philosophers to think and write deeply on the subjects of first philosophy and ethics.”
― Alan E. Johnson, First Philosophy & Human Ethics: A Rational Inquiry

tags: reason, reasoning

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“During the nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries, certain politically active religious movements sought to have the United States declared—officially, if possible, but at least unofficially—a "Christian nation." This was an attempt to reverse the church-state separation principles and achievements of such great Founders as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Roger Williams, who was more religiously devout than just about anyone living in later centuries, opposed all attempts to call a particular nation "Christian," just as he opposed the terms "Christendom" and "Christian world." His arguments included a profound analysis of the importance of separation of church and state as well as a deep religious understanding of what Christianity is.”
― Alan E. Johnson, The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience

tags: christendom, christian-nation, church-state-separation, roger-williams

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Political Philoso...: * Types of Government: General Discussion	121	416	Feb 21, 2026 09:30PM
Political Philoso...: Research and Publication	27	37	Jun 23, 2026 06:33AM

Alan’s Quotes

“What I do not know, I do not think I know.”
― Socrates

16 likes

“It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
― Earl Weaver, It's What You Learn After You Know It All That Counts : The Autobiography of Earl Weaver.

tags: dogmatism, learning, opinionated, skepticism

4 likes

“It is always more easy to discover and proclaim general principles than to apply them.”
― Winston Churchill, The Gathering Storm

tags: application, principles, reason, reasoning

12 likes

“Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.”
― Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings 1832–1858

tags: emotion, fallacies, logic-reason, logical-thinking, reason, reasoning

15 likes

“Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

[Commencement Address at Yale University, June 11 1962]”
― John F. Kennedy