What really happened, to rephrase the immortal words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “Twelve score and and nine years ago”? Our fathers? A new nation? Conceived in liberty? Dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal? Endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness? Well...not so fast.

The words are powerful, but what did they mean to those who risked their lives and liberties, and who forsook their rights as British citizens by endorsing them? Who wrote, who debated, and who signed what was officially titled “the unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America?” In what ways, if any, do they still resonate with those of us who seek, in the words of our Constitution, “a more perfect union?” With the help of the insights provided by historians including Joseph Ellis and Stacy Schiff and a close reading of Danielle Allen’s Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, we will explore the ideas and arguments it embodies.

This course will combine lecture with class discussions.