Main content

The Die is Cast: Open conflict on American soil and the creation of a democratic republic

Previous courses in this series, “The Shot heard ’Round the World,” have revealed that revolution in the American colonies was a long time coming. This course will examine several topics related to the Revolution, including the terrible suffering of both civilians and soldiers, whose sole advantage lay in fighting on and for their own soil; key figures in the decades-long effort to establish guidelines for independence and self-governance; the role of slavery in the national economy; and the fate of native American tribes and their interests in the conflict and in the colonists’ post-Revolution territorial expansion. The political and societal landscape in the two decades immediately following the 1783 Treaty of Paris will be discussed as a prelude to the final course in the series, which will focus on efforts to preserve the fragile American experiment.

Instructors: Richard Friswell, Prof. Jesse Nasta, and Prof. Kathy Hermes