American Revolutions: Reacting to the Past

In this course we will be examining four moments of intellectual and cultural conflict in the United States, including: 1)The Revolution in NYC, 1775-76, 2)The Fate of John Brown, 1859, 3)Greenwich Village, 1913 (Suffrage, Labor and the New Woman) and, 4)Chicago, 1968. We will dive deep into these moments of revolution via Reacting to the Past games, in which you’ll present the perspectives of historical characters—sometimes with values quite different than your own--in lively debate. These games do not have a fixed script: you’ll find yourself researching classic documents, collaborating, making public speeches, plotting—and in the end, perhaps even rewriting history.