- Rise of American Democracy

Catalog description

A survey of the contested origins of democracy in American history before the Civil War. Students investigate a variety of topics, including the impact of European political thinkers on American revolutionaries, the expansion of voting rights in antebellum America, the struggles of women and minorities to claim citizenship, and the impact of mobs and political protest beyond the ballot box. Over the course of the term, students will understand how this ongoing struggle for democratic rights in the United States before the Civil War made the world we inhabit today.