Professor Freeman offers an introduction to the course, summarizing the readings and discussing the course's main goals. She also offers five tips for studying the Revolution: 1) Avoid thinking about the Revolution as a story about facts and dates; 2) Remember that words we take for granted today, like "democracy," had very different meanings; 3) Think of the "Founders" as real people rather than mythic historic figures; 4) Remember that the "Founders" aren't the only people who count in the Revolution; 5) Remember the importance of historical contingency: that anything could have happened during the Revolution.
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses
This course was recorded in Spring 2010.
Course Description :
The American Revolution entailed some remarkable transformations--converting British colonists into American revolutionaries, and a cluster of colonies into a confederation of states with a common cause -- but it was far more complex and enduring then the fighting of a war. As John Adams put it, "The Revolution was in the Minds of the people... before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington"--and it continued long past America's victory at Yorktown. This course will examine the Revolution from this broad perspective, tracing the participants' shifting sense of themselves as British subjects, colonial settlers, revolutionaries, and Americans.
Joanne B. Freeman is a Professor of History at Yale University, specializing in the political history and culture of revolutionary and early national America, with a particular interest in honor culture and dueling. Born in Queens, New York in 1962, she attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, graduating in 1984. After a brief career in advertising, she worked as a public historian for seven years, during which she curated museum exhibits, coordinated educational programs, and gave public lectures for institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the United States Department of Treasury, South Street Seaport Museum, and the Museum of American Financial History. In 1992, she pursued graduate study at the University of Virginia, receiving her M.A. in American History in 1993, and her Ph.D. in 1998. In 1997, she joined the faculty of Yale University, receiving tenure and promotion to full professorship in 2002.
Freeman's books include Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic (Yale University Press, 2001) - which was awarded the 'Best Book of the Year' prize by the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic in 2002 - and Alexander Hamilton: Writings (Library of America, 2001). Her research on Hamilton has taken her to St. Kitts, Nevis, and Scotland, among other places, and given her the opportunity to shoot a black-powder dueling pistol.
Professor Freeman has published numerous articles and essays in books and professional journals, including 'Dueling as Politics: Reinterpreting the Burr-Hamilton Duel,' William and Mary Quarterly, April 1996; 'The Election of 1800: A Study in the Process of Political Change,' Yale Law Journal, June 1999; 'Slander, Poison, Whispers, and Fame: Jefferson's ÔAnas' and Political Combat in the Early Republic,' Journal of the Early Republic, Spring 1995; 'History as Told by the Devil Incarnate: Gore Vidal's Burr,' in Novel History: History According to the Novelists, ed. Mark Carnes (Simon & Schuster, 2001); ''The Art and Address of Ministerial Management: Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Congress,' in Neither Separate Nor Equal: Congress and the Executive Branch in the 1790s, ed. Kenneth Bowling (Ohio University Press, 2000); 'Explaining the Unexplainable: Reinterpreting the Sedition Act,' in The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History, ed. Julian Zelizer, Meg Jacobs, and William Novak (Princeton University Press, 2003); and 'Corruption and Compromise in the Election of 1800: A Study in the Logic of Political Change,' in The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic, ed. Peter S. Onuf and Jan Lewis (University Press of Virginia, September 2002).
A frequent lecturer on the politics and personalities of America's founding period, Freeman has spoken at such venues as Colonial Williamsburg, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, the United States Capitol Historical Society, Monticello, and the Hamilton Grange National Park Site, and has taught classes for the New York Council for History Education, the New Jersey Council for History Education, and the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities, among others. She has also advised and appeared on numerous television documentaries and educational programs, including 'The Duel' (The American Experience, PBS), 'Founding Brothers' (History Channel), 'Dueling in the New World' (Discovery Channel); and 'This Week in History' (History Channel).
Professor Freeman is a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic and the International Center for Jefferson Studies. She is currently working on a book about political violence and the culture of Congress in antebellum America.
1. Introduction: Freeman's Top Five Tips for Studying the Revolution
2. Being a British Colonist
3. Being a British American
4. "Ever at Variance and Foolishly Jealous": Intercolonial Relations
5. Outraged Colonials: The Stamp Act Crisis
6. Resistance or Rebellion? (Or, What the Heck is Happening in Boston?)
7. Being a Revolutionary
8. The Logic of Resistance
9. Who Were the Loyalists?
10. Common Sense
11. Independence
12. Civil War
13. Organizing a War
14. Heroes and Villains
15. Citizens and Choices: Experiencing the Revolution in New Haven
16. The Importance of George Washington
17. The Logic of a Campaign (or, How in the World Did We Win?)
18. Fighting the Revolution: The Big Picture
19. War and Society
20. Confederation
21. A Union Without Power
22. The Road to a Constitutional Convention
23. Creating a Constitution
24. Creating a Nation
25. Being an American: The Legacy of the Revolution