This is the story of the American Revolution, the men who made it and who then secured it. It is the story of an improbable victory by a provincial collection of loosely knit colonies over the dominant military and political power in the world. It is also the story of the creation of a nation founded on principles that no one at the time regarded as viable, and that over time have come to be regarded as the most successful recipe for political success in the modern world. The central theme of the story is that the creation of this nation of laws was only made possible by a small group of men, whom we refer to here as the Brotherhood of the Revolution.
In this course, readers are provided an in-depth look at the single most consequential event of American history: the American Revolution. Distinguished historian Edmund Morgan wrote that no one has ever quite understood the Revolution and that no one ever will. This course is an attempt, at least on some level, to prove him wrong. While the American Revolution now appears to have been inevitable, it was, in fact, highly improbable. An early conversation between Continental Congressman Eldridge Gerry and Benjamin Harrison about the prospect of being hanged by the British is a prime example of the enormous risks that were involved. In this course, it will be shown just how problematic and uncertain this period of history actually was.
Joseph J. Ellis is the Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College. After attending the College of William and Mary and Yale University, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army and taught at West Point before joining the faculty at Mount Holyoke. Ellis is the author of several books, including the National Book Award—winning American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson and Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.
Lecture 1 The Revolution and the Generation
Lecture 2 Anglo-America in 1763 and Benjamin Franklin
Lecture 3 The Constitutional Crisis, 1763-74, and John Adams
Lecture 4 The Imperial Crisis, 1763-75, and George Washington
Lecture 5 The Spirit of ’76 and Thomas Jefferson
Lecture 6 What the Declaration Declared
Lecture 7 The Long War, 1775-83, and Joseph Plumb Martin
Lecture 8 Confederation to Constitution and Alexander Hamilton
Lecture 9 A More Perfect Union and James Madison
Lecture 10 The Ghost at the Banquet: Slavery
Lecture 11 Crucial Decade: The Federalist Agenda
Lecture 12 Crucial Decade: Party Politics
Lecture 13 The Restoration of 1800
Lecture 14 The American Dialogue: Adams and Jefferson