The American Experience: Lessons in Liberty: Promise and Reality

Catalog description

Through a study of documentary and literary sources related to specific topics, the course will examine how the idea of “liberty” has developed and changed throughout the course of American history. Students will read, discuss and write about a wide variety of materials, including but not limited to political documents, speeches, political treatises, letters, biographies, newspaper articles and poetry, in an effort to understand what liberty has meant to others in the past and what it means to them today. Through frequent writing assignments, debates and class discussions, students will develop the critical thinking skills necessary to relate these documents both to the documents’ historical context and to current national and international issues.