Lehrman American Studies Center at ISI
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The Lehrman American Studies Center, a part of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, is dedicated to improving American universities' transmission of the political, economic, and moral principles that sustain a free and humane society. Read more about what we do and how you can help.
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History
“History is Philosophy teaching by examples” – Thucydides
“History is a myth that men agree to believe” – Napoleon
“History is the memory of things said and done.” – Carl L. Becker
What is history? Clearly, it depends on who you ask. But, generally speaking, history is the study and written presentation of past events. It most frequently contains stories of past human experiences, but also often includes analyses of WHY human events occurred as they did. History is organized in a wide variety of ways -- chronological, territorial, national, cultural, military, diplomatic, social, etc. – usually with considerable overlap in many works. However, how humans have viewed and written about the past has never been static. Rather history has always changed as human civilizations themselves have evolved.
Herodotus (c. 484-c. 425 BC) is often acknowledged as the “father of history” (a title bestowed on him by Cicero, the first century BC Roman statesman). Prior to his writings, most history was in the form of temple inscriptions and documents which merely recorded the great deeds of kings and the gods who supported their activities. In Herodotus’ dramatic narrative of the Greek-Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC – The Histories – one sees the first systematic look at past events through the use of critically-evaluated empirical evidence. While Herodotus also believed that divine influences helped to shape human events, his contemporary Thucydides (c. 460-c. 395BC) focused entirely on human agency in his writings. In the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides not only rationally explained the conflict between Sparta and Athens, but he also searched for its underlying moral and political causes.
Despite these accomplishments, history was never systematically or widely studied in the ancient world. Nor was it a respected branch of inquiry; rather history was viewed merely as component of literature. Aristotle, for instance, dismissed history because it investigated particular events rather than searching for what was of universal significance. This is one of the reasons why the works of many ancient historians have not survived – they were not viewed as worthy of preservation.
The emergence and triumph of Christianity in the West profoundly altered the study of the past. Rather than attempting to write about past events objectively, Christians focused on explaining the emergence of the Jewish people, primarily through accounts in the Old Testament as evidence. They also told the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection through the four gospels and other parts of the New Testament. These events represented not human agency, but the fulfillment of divine prophecy. Christian histories, moreover, presented a “universal history” through which God's ultimate plan for mankind was fully articulated and laid out.
In the Middle Ages, history continued to be studied largely through a Christian perspective, with the past providing the means through which to explain God’s larger design. Historians, therefore, often incorporated miracles and magic into their histories. However, many medieval writers also compiled extensive annals and chronicles, which were largely chronological listings of events from a particular period and/or region, presented without analysis or interpretation. A unique characteristic of medieval writers is that they did not understand the process of historical change. In other words, they assumed or believed that the customs, practices, and habits of past ages were the same as theirs.
With the Renaissance, humanist scholars, such as Petrarch (1304-1374), comprehended that their own age was very different from the past. Thus, these writers began to grasp the process of historical change and to realize that past events and people needed to be situated in their particular time periods in order to be fully understood. Moreover, seeking to emulate ancient writers and scholars, Renaissance historians attempted to sift critically through the documentary record available to them in order to search rationally for the human cause of events.
With the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, historical writings by Christian reformers (e.g., John Calvin) focused on papal corruption and misdeeds while searching for the historical moment when the Roman Catholic Church supposedly turned away from Jesus' teachings and the true church (or the city of God). Catholic responses to Protestant writings presented very different versions of the past with neither side possessing historical objectivity.
With the emergence of the printing press and the proliferation of printed works, however, scholars came to increasingly understand that all written evidence from the past was rooted in the historical period of its production. In the 16th and 17th centuries, legal scholars in particular viewed and interpreted laws and judicial customs as products of past ages. In 17th century England, moreover, the political and religious struggles between the Parliament and crown led to intense historical investigations by scholars into that country’s distant and recent past, with supporters of each side looking for the origins of institutions and into the development of sovereign rights and powers.
By the 18th century, numerous collections of historical documents and materials had been published and, as religious conflicts ebbed, scholars increasingly adopted a more thoroughly secular perspective in their writings. In particular, historians began to search for the multiple and interrelated factors which shaped a particular society or civilization over the generations. The best illustration of this is Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire(1776-88). An example of “philosophical” history, Gibbon sought not only to investigate why and how certain societies progressed, but also what caused them to decline and ultimately collapse.
In the 19th century, history began to emerge as a separate and distinct academic discipline written by professionally-trained historians. The process began in Germany. In reaction to military defeat and occupation by Napoleon, German leaders in Prussia and elsewhere insisted after the French emperor’s defeat that their own history be systematically studied and taught to all citizens. As universal education became common throughout Europe, history formed a central part of the curriculum. Universities also established academic departments in history and trained new historians in the techniques of rational investigation, critical textual analysis and analytical writing.
During the late-19th and into the 20th century, one sees both dramatic growth in the number of historical works published and an increasing specialization among historians. Indeed, many scholars began to worry that the sheer number of available histories as well as excessive specialization would lead to many important new discoveries being overlooked or ignored. As a result of the discipline’s ongoing professionalization and specialization, history came to be defined by many universities in the 1960s and 1970s, not as a branch of the humanities, but as one of the social sciences. Ironically, at the same time, post-modern critiques influenced the writing of history. Some scholars debated whether or not “true” or accurate history was even possible. Calling into question the objectivity of their colleagues, post-modern historians asked if they and others could really provide “truth” about the past, or were their writings merely filled with their own assumptions and “meanings.”
A number of these troubling trends continue in the early 21st century. Even though the reading-public remains highly interested in biography and general histories, the discipline remains excessively specialized -- one could even say Balkanized -- with countless scholarly works published every year (far too many for historians to read even within their own specialties). Many scholars, moreover, continue to be influenced by postmodern ideas about the elusiveness of “truth.” Thus, as a discipline, history continues to change and evolve, reflecting the times in which it is produced.
Books
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Dynamics of World History
by Christopher Dawson
Several major themes run through Dawson's work, including the interdependence of history and sociology; the need to go beyond nationalist history toward a history of the entire process of cultural development; the need to study not abstract Man but particular…
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Remembered Past: John Lukacs on History, Historians, and Historical Knowledge—A Reader
by John Lukacs
Among the most accomplished historians of his generation, John Lukacs has written more than twenty books and hundreds of essays and reviews. His scholarship encompasses the history of the modern age, focusing especially on the political, ideological, intellectual, and military…
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Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America
by Thomas G. West
Vindicating the Founders is a defense of the Founders' views and actions on slavery, women's rights, property rights, voting rights, and other controversial issues.
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The World of Marsilius of Padua
by Gerson Moreno-Riano
Perhaps no author of the Latin Middle Ages has been the subject of so much controversy and even vitriol than Marsilius of Padua (ca. 1275-1342/43). As author of the notorious heretical tract, the Defensor Pacis, Marsilius became an infamous figure…
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The Founders' Almanac : A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders and Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding
by Matthew Spalding
This easy-to-use reference features the people, ideas, and events that defined the birth of the American Republic. This book contains biographical essays on six of the Founding Fathers, such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, along with a calendar chronicling…
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Images
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Death of Wolfe
( Canada History Television )
The final moments of British General James Wolfe during the 1759 Battle of Quebec. It is an oil on canvas of the Neoclassical era.
Online Libraries / Collections
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The Avolon Project
( Yale Law School )
This website gives you accurate access to varios online document collections from American history, including documents on American Constitutionalism and the Founding as well as presidential speeches. It is a trustworthy collection of online documents.
You may find it helpful to narrow confine your search to a narrower topic. You can use the list of subjects on the left for that purpose.
Course level: Unknown
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Abraham Lincoln as Statesman
by Flagg Taylor
Course Description: *This course will explore Lincoln's confrontation with the problem of slavery and the American regime. It will primarily consist of a close analysis of Lincoln's speeches and writings, with particular emphasis on the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. *Lincoln's… -
American Civil War
by Preston Jones
War is at best barbarism…. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is… -
American History to 1877
by J. Patrick Mullins
BROAD PURPOSE OF COURSE *University Catalogue Description: A survey of the history of the United States from the Colonial period to 1877. *This survey course provides an introduction to the colonial origins and early history of the United States. First… -
American Political Development
by David Nichols
Course description: An examination of the development and reform of political institutions and practices over the course of American History. Required Texts: James W. Ceaser. Presidential Selection: Theory and Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979). David… -
American Political Experience
by Jesse Covington
Course Description Welcome to the American Political Experience! This course offers an in-depth introduction to some of the central features of American political theory. While deeply rooted in the political history of the United States, this course proceeds thematically rather… -
American Political Leadership
by Randall Strahan
Introduction This course will explore the politics of political leadership in the United States. First, we will consider the different perspectives on political leadership offered by traditional political science, and by modern political science and the other social sciences. Second… -
Civil Liberties and the Constitution
by Frank Colucci
This course explores the meaning of the Constitution through an examination of leading opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court, an institution that is both legal and political in nature. This semester focuses on the First Amendment’s… -
Civil War and Reconstruction, 1848-1877
by Phil Hamilton
This course surveys the political, social, and military events that occurred during the years 1848-1876. The class especially focuses on the war years of 1861-1865. -
Colonial America
by Jonathan Den Hartog
Introduction A history of the Americas in the colonial period must wrestle with a wide-ranging, varied, and ultimately fascinating story. Although beginning with the Native Americans, the story must soon deal with colonists and colonizers from several European nations. Colonists… -
Colonial and Revolutionary America
by J. Patrick Mullins
UNIVERSITY STATEMENTS Academic Integrity By accepting this syllabus, you pledge to uphold the principles of Academic Integrity expressed by the University community. You agree to observe these principles yourself and to defend them against abuse by others. … -
Colonial and Revolutionary America
by J. Patrick Mullins
UNIVERSITY STATEMENTS Academic Integrity By accepting this syllabus, you pledge to uphold the principles of Academic Integrity expressed by the Marymount University Community. You agree to… -
Constitutional Democracy
by Steven Smith
Course Description: Democracy and constitutional government have not always enjoyed an easy relationship. Democracy is based on the doctrine of popular sovereignty and rule of the people, while constitutions are forms or formalities designed to check… -
Early America to the Civil War
by Phil Hamilton
This survey course will examine American History from the age of European exploration to the conclusion of the American Civil War. -
Early US History
by Christopher Anadale
Introduction This course covers the history of the United States from settlement to the end of the Civil War, with special focus on the U.S. Constitution, its origin and influence. Course Objectives After taking this course, you will be able… -
Foundations of American Thought
by Paul Ulrich
Required Texts *Herodotus, Aristotle, Plato on democracy (handout) *Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Mansfield/Winthrop, eds.) *John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Macpherson, ed.) *Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (Silverman, ed.) *Declaration of Independence(in Federalist volume) *The Federalist Papers (Rossiter, ed.) *Frederick… -
History Survey: The World to 1500
by J. Patrick Mullins
COURSE OVERVIEW: With today’s triumph of “globalization,” people all over the world are coming to embrace—or at least aspire to—many of the institutions that developed gradually over the last three thousands years in the West: a liberal… -
Introduction to American Government
by Carl Scott
As befits the college’s revolutionary-era establishment, this university's Government and Foreign Affairs department emphasizes understanding America’s founding principles and its Constitution. This course, which introduces the principles, structure, and practice of American government, is a prerequisite for many of the… -
Introduction to American Government
by Joseph S. Devaney
Course Objective This course is intended as an intensive introduction to the basic institutions and principles of American government, with particular attention to historical and constitutional foundations, political theory of the American Founding, federalism, separation of powers, civil rights and civil… -
Jacksonian America, 1815-1848
by Phil Hamilton
Jacksonian America, 1815-1848 Image1048|thumbnail|260px|center|Andrew Jackson Introduction Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) is often regarded at the father of the modern presidency. A man of enormous energy, vigor, and ambition, he was the first president who was born into poverty to rise to… -
Modern European History
by J. Patrick Mullins
COURSE OVERVIEW: In this course we will examine Europe’s Old Regime, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and Napoleon, nineteenth-century nationalism and imperialism, the First World War, the Russian Revolution and Stalin, the rise of fascism, the Second World War, the Cold… -
Puritans and Planters: The American Colonial Experience
by Chris Esh
Course Description: This seminar-style course will focus on the cultural, religious, and intellectual sources of American identity in its colonial history. It develops in detail the foundations of this identity in the Puritan, Planter, Quaker, African, and Backcountry migrations to British… -
Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift
by Paul Rahe
This is an advanced course on the modern liberal, commercial republic as it is represented in the thinking of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Tocqueville. It assumes your familiarity with the general outlines of the history of political… -
Survey of Western Civilization I
by Preston Jones
What is at stake is far from insignificant: it is how one should live one’s life. --Plato, The Republic All our dignity consists…of thought…. So let us work on thinking well. --Pascal, Pensées Required Texts: Aristotle, The Nichomachean Ethics… -
Survey of Western Civilization II
by Preston Jones
I do not feel obliged to believe that that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain… -
The American Experiment
by Elizabeth Busch
Catalogue Description Interdisciplinary study of the ways in which American was, and is, an experiment in liberty. The course critically examines civil life in America by focusing both on the distinct challenges posed by self-government and the unique tensions created… -
The American Founding
by David Nichols
Course Goals and Objectives: This course will provide an in depth examination of the debates surrounding the American Revolution and the creation and ratification of the Constitution. It will look at the various strands of political thought… -
The American Presidency
by Joseph S. Devaney
This course is intended as an intensive introduction to the American presidency, with particular attention to historical and constitutional foundations, the history of the presidency, the scope of executive authority in a system based on separation of powers, presidential elections… -
The Civil War and the Re-Founding of America
by Michael P. Krom
Introduction The Civil War was not just an attempt to work a solution to the problem of slavery left unresolved by the founding era; the war also grew out of a difference of opinion concerning the nature of the American… -
The History of Conservative Thought
by William English
Introduction The aim of this seminar is to develop a historical understanding of the evolution of ideas and conflicts within "conservative" circles of political thought with an eye towards critically evaluating their present relevance to contemporary politics and social analysis.… -
The Rise and Fall of American Slavery
by Phil Hamilton
Introduction and Course Description Image1813|thumbnail|240px|right|Sale of Enslaved Africans and Transport to Slave Ship In 1756, Olaudah Equaino was eleven years old. That year, while living in his small village in what is now Nigeria, he and his younger sister were… -
U.S. History to 1877
by Jonathan Den Hartog
Introduction Origins matter. In this class, we will consider the origins of the United States and trace its early history. These events helped set parameters which later generations of Americans have affirmed, contested, and even restructured. Knowledge of such origins… -
US History to 1877
by Thomas Kidd
Course Description: A study of the history of colonial North America and the United States from the period of European contact through Reconstruction. Emphasis is placed on political, social and economic developments. Required Materials: Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman and… -
Virginia and the Old South
by J. Patrick Mullins
UNIVERSITY POLICY STATEMENTS Academic Integrity By accepting this syllabus, you pledge to uphold the principles of Academic Integrity expressed by the University community. You agree to observe these principles yourself and to defend them against abuse by others. …
Course level: 300
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American Government and Politics
by Jim Harrigan
Course Objectives In this course we will examine the theoretical underpinnings of American government and the unique brand of democracy which that thought has brought about. We will examine the role of government in America in several different time periods… -
American Intellectual History
by Jay Langdale
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American Revolution and Early Republic, 1775-1820
by Phil Hamilton
Introduction and Course Description: Image982|thumbnail|280px|right|Signing of Declaration of Independence How do we make sense of Thomas Jefferson as an American revolutionary? As a young man in 1776, he had stirred the world with the radical words "we hold these truths… -
Religion in America
by Thomas Kidd
Course Description: A study of the variety and persistence of American religious beliefs and practices from the meeting of European and Native American peoples in the 16th century to the turn of the 21st century. Required Materials: Harry Stout…
Course level: 100
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Civil Liberties
by Chris Wolfe
COURSE OBJECTIVES: This is a constitutional law course that focuses especially on civil liberties. The areas that we will be studying this semester include the incorporation of the Bill of Rights into Fourteenth Amendment due process, freedom of speech, freedom… -
Political Science 100-03 : Principles of American Politics
by Jim Harrigan
Course Objectives In this course we will examine the principles of American politics through a careful consideration of the American Founding. We will consider both the abstract principles which animated the creation of the American regime and the regime itself… -
The Classical Roots of American Culture
by David Pollio
Course Description Classical Greece and Rome have had a profound influence on many aspects of western civilization, in general, and American culture, in particular. From the time of the first European settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts through the early national period and…
Course level: 200
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Freedom's Foundations I
by Mark Mitchell
I. Description & Purpose This course traces the development of the concept of freedom from its roots in the ancient world up to the French Revolution. We will examine the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman roots of liberty, the expansion of liberty… -
Freedom's Foundations II
by Mark Mitchell
I. Description & Purpose A continuation of GOV 213 this course takes up the traditional concept of liberty as understood by the American Founders and contrasts it with various rival concepts of “liberty.” Students will study the claims of Marxism, nihilism… -
Political Science 245: The American Presidency
by Jim Harrigan
Course Objectives: In this course we will examine the Presidency of the United States in both design and practice. We will begin with the United States Constitution and The Federalist in an effort to understand the design features of the…
Course level: 400
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The American Founding
by Jim Harrigan
Course Objectives: Historians have long disagreed on the nature of the America Founding. The facts are easily accessible, but no definitive interpretation of the Founding has yet emerged. In this course we will examine a good number of the…
 | Abraham Lincolnby Phil Hamilton Abraham Lincoln remains one of the most important figures in American history for his presidential leadership during the crisis of the Civil War. Born in 1807 in slaveholding Kentucky, Lincoln moved at the age of eight to the free state… |
| Alien and Sedition Actsby Phil Hamilton In the summer of 1798, the United States was close to war with France. Many members of the Federalist Party, including President John Adams and Federalist leaders in Congress, not only believed that their Democratic-Republican opponents were pro-French, but that… |
| American Revolutionary Warby Phil Hamilton The American victory in the Revolutionary War was one of the most stunning events of the eighteenth century. Although committed to the cause of independence, American patriots entered the conflict disorganized, ill-equipped and facing a formidable foe. Thus, the American… |
| American SlaveryAlthough slavery in British-America had existed since the early 1600s, the institution changed dramatically in the generations which following the Revolutionary War. Intellectual, economic, political, and religious transformations led to alterations in attitudes about slavery as well as to changes… |
| Boston Massacreby Phil Hamilton The "Boston Massacre" was a crucial event that helped propel the American colonies toward war and independence. The "massacre" occurred in March 1770 as a result of the volatile mix of angry American mobs and nervous British troops. In 1768… |
| Boston Tea Partyby Phil Hamilton The Boston Tea Party of 1773 is one of the most important protests in American history. It began ironically over a British statute which sought to lower the cost of tea to American consumers. The origins of the crisis stretched… |
| Declaration of Independenceby Phil Hamilton The Declaration of Independence, authored chiefly by Thomas Jefferson, remains the central document of the United States of America. Influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment, Jefferson primarily drew from the natural rights principles of the English philosopher John Locke.… |
| Election of 1860 |
| EmancipationThe emancipation of African-American slaves in the 1863 during President Lincoln's administration represented the nation fulfilling the ideals and principles articulated in the Declaration of Independence of 1776. The nation's journey to the Emancipation Proclamation was a long and difficult… |
| Era of Good Feelingsby Phil Hamilton The "Era of Good Feelings" refers to the period from 1815 to 1824. During these years, the United States was politically governed by national leaders who all belonged to the Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson. The era ended in 1824… |
| Franklin in Paris |
| George Washingtonby Phil Hamilton Born into a modest Virginia gentry family, George Washington(1732-1799) emerged as the most important figure in America's revolutionary struggle. His accomplishments were twofold: 1) he bravely led the Continental Army to its military victory over the British in the War… |
| Gettysburgby Phil Hamilton The battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) was the most important struggle of the Civil War. After three days of fighting, Gen. George Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Following his defeat… |
| Jacksonian Democracy |
| Lexington and Concordby Phil Hamilton In early April 1775, General Thomas Gage, commander of British troops in Boston, received orders from the British government to arrest prominent Patriot leaders in Massachusetts as well as to confiscate military supplies local militia units were stockpiling. Although Gage… |
| Lincoln-Douglas Debatesby Phil Hamilton In 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephan Douglas engaged in seven debates in a race for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. Although Douglas was regarded as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1860, he struggled in… |
| Second Bank of the United States |
| Stamp Act Crisisby Phil Hamilton The Stamp Act of 1765 was part of Great Britain's effort to strengthen imperial control over the empire and to raise additional revenues following the Seven Years War (better known as the French and Indian War). The act, however, sparked… |
January 2010
- An Interview with George H. Nash by Lee Trepanier
November 2009
- "Hustler" Nation by Phil Hamilton
- Introducing The Subfields of Political Science: Big Questions for Contemporary Politics, Part V by John von Heyking
July 2009
- Christianity and the American Founding by anonymous
June 2009
- Teaching Colonial/Revolutionary American History by anonymous
- Teaching the Philadelphia Convention with Madison's "Notes" by anonymous
- The Hemingses of Monticello by Phil Hamilton
July 2008
- "Rise and Fall of American Slavery" syllabus by Phil Hamilton