Part Two: Revolution and Republic

Mon., Sept. 28 From Resistance to Independence

First Position Paper Due

Wed., Sept. 30 No class (Yom Kippur)

• Required Reading:
  
  • Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, ix-xvi, 22-159
    
  • Boyer, Enduring Vision, ch. 5 and Declaration of Independence in Appendix, i-iii
    
• Questions: Read the Declaration of Independence both before and then again after you read the selection by Bailyn. Did Bailyn's interpretation of patriot ideology affect your understanding of the Declaration of Independence? Do you think the patriots were justified in rebelling against Great Britain? Why or why not?

Fri., Oct.2 Whose Independence? The Revolutionary Experience of Indians, Blacks, and White Women

Mon., Oct. 5 The Constitution: A Counter-revolution?

 Recommended Web Sites:
• U.S. Founding Documents
• Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention

Wed., Oct. 7 Full-Class Discussion (10 a.m.)

• Required Reading:
  
  • James Madison, The Federalist, No. 10 and No. 51 (handouts)
  • Boyer, Enduring Vision, ch. 6
    
• Questions: How was the Constitution supposed to solve the problem of factionalism? Was the solution essentially democratic or elitist?
• Evening or Noon: Empire of Reason video

Fri., Oct. 9 Launching the Federal Government

Mon., Oct. 12

Wed., Oct. 14 (lecture, 10 a.m.) Jeffersonian Paradoxes

• Required Reading: Boyer, Enduring Vision, ch. 7

Fri., Oct. 16 Slavery and Race in the Early Republic

• Recommended Web Sites:
  
  • Monticello
    
  • Ask Thomas Jefferson!
  • "Thomas Jefferson: Radical and Racist," by Conor Cruise O'Brien in The Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 1996