The Great Courses
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America's Founding Fathers volume 35
Language
English
Description
The "age of the Founders" ends with the War of 1812 and James Madison at the helm of government. You'll learn why the United States was disastrously unprepared for war, and you'll get a closer look at the state of the nation as it was bequeathed to Madison's successor, James Monroe.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 36
Language
English
Description
In the first part of this last episode, learn the fates of each of the Founding Fathers discussed in this course. Then, close with a look at Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which suggests the new nation's focus on self-interest instead of virtue (as well as a lack of art and culture).
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America's Founding Fathers volume 23
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English
Description
As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton had the responsibility of handling the new nation's foreign, state, and domestic debts. In this episode, learn how Hamilton saw debt not as a problem but an asset, and discover how he argued for the establishment of a national bank.
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Series
America's Founding Fathers volume 31
Language
English
Description
Meet another often-overlooked Founder, Secretary of War James McHenry, who was responsible for putting the nation's army into play for the first time. Despite political backstabbing, and against the backdrop of the Quasi-War with France, McHenry brought about military changes still with us today.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 24
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English
Description
In the past, Thomas Jefferson denounced political parties. Now, after the ratification of the Constitution, he began to form the nation's first political party. Discover how he did this by assembling allies, appealing to selected individuals to run for Congress, and playing for control of the media.
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Series
America's Founding Fathers volume 34
Language
English
Description
Explore the court of Chief Justice John Marshall. In major court cases like Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland, Marshall would devise a national judicial sovereignty to match the constitutional and economic sovereignty envisioned by Madison and Hamilton, and to save the United States from Jacobin Republicanism.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 19
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English
Description
One day after the Constitutional Convention ended, the document was printed in 500 copies by John Dunlap and David Claypoole and shared with the general public. What happened next? How did George Washington use a cover letter to mitigate shock? How did the Founders brace themselves for the inevitable state conventions?
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America's Founding Fathers volume 22
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English
Description
First, examine hurdles to electing George Washington as the first president of the United States. Then, follow the story of how the Constitution finally got its Bill of Rights, and how this task was undertaken by the one man who most vehemently opposed such a bill: James Madison.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 20
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English
Description
Chief Justice John Marshall would call the Federalist Papers the "complete commentary on our constitution." Here, Professor Guelzo explains the daring act of aggression these landmark political writings were, and outlines the six themes Hamilton (under the pseudonym "Publius") believed would demonstrate the indispensability of the new constitution.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 21
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English
Description
The fate of the new constitution depended on the state ratifying conventions. And because Virginia's consent was necessary to make the overall ratification process work, neutralizing Patrick Henry was the Federalists' most important task. Go inside the battleground of the ratifying convention at Richmond on June 2, 1788.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 18
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English
Description
The Committee on Postponed Parts, headed by David Brearley, was the Convention's most effective committee. Its business, as you'll learn, was to reconcile demands about the shape of the new national president. You'll also learn about the Committee on Style, whose sole task was to wordsmith the Convention's agreements into a single document.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 11
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English
Description
Go inside the start of the Constitutional Convention, where you'll learn how and why the Founders assembled to craft a new, improved system of government. Central to this was the plan set out by Edmund Randolph, which aimed at stopping a jealous Congress or greedy state legislatures from destroying it.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 29
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English
Description
Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer presented Americans at the end of the 18th century as a people unlike any other nation. From this starting point, explore the demographics of the early United States, witness the early stirrings of abolitionist and women's suffrage movements, and probe America's cultural fear of strangers.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 10
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English
Description
In a private study, James Madison detailed what he called "the vices of the political system of the United States." Here, explore these vices, including state failure to comply with constitutional requisitions and the provincial nature of state legislatures. Also, examine his most important suggestions for a new frame of government.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 4
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English
Description
No one in the 1780s defined the idea of an "American" as much as Benjamin Franklin. Here, explore the many roles Franklin played in the formative years of the republic: as independent printer, public "gentleman," nobleman of nature, and tradesman cynical of the wealthy and powerful.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 5
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English
Description
Explore how books by Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Adam Smith influenced Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy. Also, consider Jefferson's fierce critiques of religion and commerce, and the ways he nevertheless betrayed (as a large-scale slave owner) the Enlightenment principles he held so dear.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 12
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English
Description
One speech by William Paterson, a member of the New Jersey delegation, halted the Randolph Plan from sailing smoothly to adoption. What were Paterson's arguments? Why did he support a simple amendment to the Articles of Confederation instead of a rewrite? What did his alternative plan look like?
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America's Founding Fathers volume 17
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English
Description
It was Rufus King who, at the debates, questioned the admission of slaves into the rule of representation. First, explore the dissonance between liberty and slavery in the new United States. Then, come to see how Rufus King predicted the angry tiger slavery would become in America.
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America's Founding Fathers volume 25
Language
English
Description
Whiskey, on the frontier of the early Republic, was a major business. So when the national government proposed an excise tax on whiskey, it led to the Whiskey Rebellion. Go back to the summer of 1794 and meet William Findley, a self-styled republican who saw Republican societies as vehicles for political strategy.
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Series
America's Founding Fathers volume 9
Language
English
Description
Come to see Patrick Henry in a new light: as the most self-contradictory (and most often defeated) Founder. Topics include the influence on Henry of the Reverend Samuel Davies, how the Awakeners shaped his brilliant oratorical skills, the public funding of Christianity, and his unremarkable accomplishments as governor of Virginia.