Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminar - The American Revolution

The American Revolution
July 5-July 11, 2009
Director: Gary Nash, Professor and Director,
National Center for History in the Schools,
University of California, Los Angeles

This seminar will proceed from two premises: 1) that the Revolution had many meanings to its diverse participants; and 2) that it has been interpreted—its causes, dynamics, and outcomes—ever since. Therefore, we will read secondary works of various historians who have disagreed sharply on how to interpret the American Revolution; and we will examine a variety of primary documents through which we can better understand how people at the time understood what they were fighting for and what outcomes they hoped to enjoy. "Who shall write the history of the American Revolution?" wrote John Adams to Thomas Jefferson (in 1815). "Nobody," Jefferson replied, "except merely its external facts . . . The life and soul of its history must be forever unknown." Almost two centuries later, let's discover for ourselves.