HIST 501 O2B / POLSC 501 O2B: The American Revolution This course focuses on three topics: political developments in North America and the British empire and the arguments for and against independence, culminating in the Declaration of Independence; the Revolutionary War as a military, social and cultural event in the development of the American nation […]
HIST 644 O2A / POLSC 644 O2A: The Congress This course focuses on the legislative branch of the US government. It examines topics such as the constitutional powers of Congress, the relations between Congress and the other branches of the federal government and the states, and the changing structure and internal politics of Congress. Schedule: […]
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 of the Civil War, and the social reforms of the Progressive Era.Participants will analyze how humorists like Marietta Holley and Mary Abigail Dodge used "sprightly" […]
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 and interpretation, is it still possible to understand the Declaration as its authors understood it? In this seminar, we will discuss the primary sources that […]
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 of Independence; the Revolutionary War as a military, social and cultural event in the development of the American nation and state; and the United States […]
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 […]
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. […]
HIST 624 1A / POLSC 624 1A: The American Western This course is an intensive study of several classic American Westerns, in both print and film. The American Western reflects something fundamental about both the American mind and the American regime. The Western’s emphasis on courage and self-reliance, for example, arises from that same American […]
HIST 660 1A / POLSC 660 1A: The United States and the Holocaust This course will focus on the American and allied response to the Holocaust. We will also look at the rise of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party, examine the ideology that fueled Nazism, as well as the creation of the institutions […]
