This is a course for students interested in understanding the causes, consequences, and meaning of
American independence. For a class treating a relatively short period of time (roughly, 1750-1808),
we'll read, talk, and write about a wide variety of topics. Some will be familiar (think the Stamp Act,
George Washington, the battle of Princeton, the Constitution, the election of 1800), but others will not
(a midwife on the Maine frontier, the Lord Mayor of London, an ex-slave serving in the British Army,
an old shoemaker remembering chucking tea into Boston harbor). We'll also think about why this
moment is important—how historians have differed about it over time and why elements of it are still
being fought among contemporary politicos today. As such, this is also a great course for students
who haven't taken a history class at Princeton before.