One Day

This one-day seminar explores how 19th-century women utilized wit and satire to navigate three pivotal eras of American history: the challenges of frontier life and Western settlement, the political upheavals […]

There have been thousands of books and articles written about the Declaration of Independence, and its ringing words make an appearance in every American History textbook. Given all this commentary […]

This seminar will discuss readings that address such issues as political developments in North America and the British empire and the arguments for and against independence, culminating in the Declaration […]

What took place during the summer of 1787 is still considered extraordinary…but how did the delegates actually tackle and respond to the problems facing them to secure ‘the blessings of liberty’? Our study of these debates will attempt to understand the interests and principles that divided the members of the Convention and how they arrived […]

In creating what James Madison referred to as a “compound republic,” the framers of the U.S. Constitution established a political system that was bound to generate collisions between state and federal governments. This seminar will analyze disputes about the extent of federal and state authority throughout American History, beginning with the Federalists and anti-Federalists ratification […]

Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. both argued that the proper foundation for civic education is the belief that America has a moral essence derived from the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and that America’s history and purpose—its past, present, and future—is the story of our struggle to live up to those principles. […]