Dr. David Adler

This short course will emphasize the ideas, principles, concerns and events behind the American Revolution, with an eye to understanding the revolutionary war as an ideological and constitutional struggle between Great Britain and the colonies. The revolution may be seen as reflecting Americans’ deep worries about the corruption of power and the threat it posed to their liberties, fears that resound in our time. The great intellectual battles that animated the revolution spawned long-term principles and institutions that influenced the framers of the Constitution, as well as the subsequent development of America’s political and constitutional history. Institutions familiar to our citizens, including federalism, judicial review and popular sovereignty, as well as the very definition of what a “constitution” is, were at the center of the revolution. This course, which celebrates the singular historic opportunity to explore and analyze the Declaration of Independence on its 250th anniversary, will weave into our discussion the impact of some of the most significant writings, speeches, and statements that shaped the revolution. Readings include masterpieces of rhetoric from the pens of John and Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin and James Otis, as well as scholarly analyses from eminent historians.