HIS 597: Founding Documents -- Founding Fathers

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Introduction: Founding Documents -- Founding Fathers

Today, America's founding documents inspire universal awe and reverence. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights are studied and emulated around the world. The original documents rest in a special wing of the National Archives in Washington D.C., half way between the U.S. Capitol and the White House. In a dimly lit sanctuary, under a sixty-foot rotunda, sits what some critics have called the altar to the "Charters of Freedom."

During the day, visitors may view the historic documents, which are, without-a-doubt, the world's most protected pieces of parchment. The pages of the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are encased behind bulletproof glass in separate gold-plated, titanium frames, which are locked down with machined, diamond-turned seals. The atmosphere within each encasement is regulated by an NIST-integrated instrument system that maintains an internal temperature of 67 degrees and a relative humidity of 45 percent. At night, the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are mechanically lowered into a stone vault, behind five-ton doors of steel that are designed to withstand a nuclear explosion.

The National Archives has undertaken critical work to protect what it calls the "Charters of Freedom." Like many other historic organizations, trusts, and sites around the country, the Archives is devoted to the protection and preservation of the American past. In the Archives' Exhibit Hall, however, guests encounter the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights as static objects of veneration -- relics of the early American past. Rushed along by fellow visitors and tour personnel, few people have time to read the documents they have traveled so far to see. The danger this poses is clear. To many Americans, the "Charters of Freedom" have ceased to be living documents -- to be read, interpreted, and applied. They are, instead, historic charters to be admired or worshipped.

In this course, we will remove the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights from their protective encasements so that we may study them in all their complexity. We will approach the documents through the lives of the Founding Fathers -- the men who drafted and debated the documents. It is my hope that our study of the Founding Fathers will allow us to better understand the "Charters of Freedom" and the world they helped create.

Syllabus: HIS 597 -- Founding Documents -- Founding Fathers

Graduate Course Dr. Jeff Littlejohn

3 hrs credit - Spring 2008 Office: AB4 472

Sam Houston State University Phone: 936.294.4438

http://www.studythepast.com Email: littlejohn@shsu.edu

Required Books to Purchase

Ellis, Joseph. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. New York: Vintage, 2002.

Holton, Woody. Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. New York: Knopf, 1997.

McCoy, Drew. The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

McDonald, Forrest. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the Constitution. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1986.

Meacham, Jon. American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. New York: Random House, 2006.

Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

Wood, Gordon. Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Vintage, 1993.

Books for Reports

Appleby, Joyce. Capitalism and a New Social Order: The Republican Vision of the 1790s. New York: New York University Press, 1984.

Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Beard, Charles. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1913.

Cornell, Saul. The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Hofstadter, Richard. The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1948 (Read introduction, chapter 1, and chapter 2); and, The Idea of a Party System; The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780-1840. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.

Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969.

Assignments

1) thoughtful, informed participation in class discussions every week

2) one precis, 150-300 words, on each of four books: Holton, Maier, McDonald, plus one of your own choosing, due the day the book in question is discussed in class. This should be a concise, thoughtful statement of the book's major point, with an assessment of how the author supports the point.

3) two oral reports, fifteen minutes each, one on an assigned text, the other on an approved book of your choice. All outside books must be approved by January 31.

4) two essays, roughly 750 words each, presenting the same points as the oral report, due the same day as the oral report.

5) final historiographical project to be shared with other students in the course in preparation for comprehensive exams. This project will include a historiographical essay, roughly 1,500 words, to be posted online with supporting materials, including links to primary sources, book reviews, and other relevant media. The final project is due on May 5 and will be presented in class on May 8.

Grading

1) Each precis: 20 points
2) First essay/oral report: 30 points
3) Second essay/oral report: 40 points
4) Final project: 50 points
5) Participation: 50 points

Total Points: 250

Schedule: HIS 597 -- Founding Documents -- Founding Fathers

introduction | the world before them | origins of the revolution | the declaration

revolutionary war | making a nation | constitution | ratification | winners and losers

founding brothers | age of jefferson | faith and the founding | second amendment

Week One: January 17 -- Course Introduction

General Reading

- The Declaration of Independence | online
- The Constitution of the United States | online
- The Bill of Rights | online

Biographies and Bibliographies

Benjamin Franklin (6 Jan. 1706 - 17 Apr. 1790) | online
George Washington (11 Feb. 1732 - 14 Dec. 1799) | online
John Adams (19 Oct. 1735 - 4 July 1826) | online
Thomas Jefferson (13 Apr. 1743 - 4 July 1826) | online
James Madison (5 Mar. 1751 - 28 June 1836) | online
Alexander Hamilton (11 Jan. 1757? - 12 July 1804) | online