The Center for Constitutional Design joins the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership for its annual Constitutional Day Lecture. This year features a discussion of the founding of the United States and its national identity. In recent years, the competing imperatives of activists and journalists at both edges of our ideological spectrum have produced warring narratives of the American founding: slavery versus liberty, original sin versus germinal gift, conclave of villains versus garden of heroes. Both of these approaches owe more to politics than to history. As we approach the quarter-millennium mark, how can we equip ourselves and our students with an understanding of the revolutionary era that is rigorous, complex, and above all, true to the evidence?
This event will also be live streamed on SCETL’s YouTube page.
Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History | Harvard University
Pforzheimer Foundation Director | Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America