As the United States begins to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, we turn our attention — in this course — to the results of that war for independence. It’s one thing to take up arms against the old country, a very different matter to begin a new one.
Our focus will be on the issues raised, debated, and resolved (or were they?) by the founders of the new nation, and by ordinary people whose experiences, observations, opinions, and voices contributed to the political discussions and decisions. What did people wish for and worry about? What were their hopes and fears in birthing this new country? What were the alternatives that had to be considered? The challenges that had to be accommodated? And how do we know about what folks thought about and the ideas they fought for in that fragile period when the New Republic was forming and beginning the experiment that continues to this day?
The classes will be intensely discussion-based, and each class participant will become a “specialist” in one book from a bibliography (provided by the instructor) of some of the best historical scholarship on this time period.
Instructor Jayne Gordon, President of Coastal Senior College, has taught many history-related courses for CSC, including “The Revolution Revisited,” “History and Memory,” and “Maine in 1820.” A public historian, her last job before retirement was as Director of Education at the Massachusetts Historical Society (1791), where she developed many programs based on the extensive document collections related to the period of the nation’s and the Society’s founding.