This course surveys the events leading up to the American Revolution of 1775 - 1783 and the tumultuous years that followed, observing at close range members of the so-called founding generation as they fought among themselves - often savagely, and, in one case, murderously - over what was best for the fledgling United States. Students will read a wide range of primary sources (letters, diaries, propaganda) and so grasp the war's impact not only on average men, women, and children, but also in the world of ideas beyond these shores. Above all, the course will treat the Revolution as contemporaries understood it: as a violent civil war in which property was destroyed and people died badly - as perhaps the most appalling human rights crisis of the 18th century. |