Origins and Ideologies of the American Revolution

The years between 1760 and 1800 rocked the Western world. These were the years when colonists on the eastern fringes of a continent converted the ideals of Enlightenment thought first into action, then into an actual form of government. Now you can learn why this happened and how the colonists did it - in a series of 48 insightful lectures from an award-winning teacher and author. Professor Mancall brings to life not only the famous but also the little-remembered colonists who were caught up in the debates over rights and power, liberties and empire. It is a story of immense importance and rich discoveries. And because he presents original source materials, including examples of how events were reported and interpreted, you'll more readily grasp the evolution of ideas, the competing pressures, and the misunderstandings - not only in the time leading up to the Revolution, and during the years it was being fought, but afterwards, as well. That's when the victorious colonists came to learn that in achieving freedom from Great Britain, they had simply traded one set of problems for another. They still had to cope with the extraordinarily difficult task of crafting a workable government - one that could support their ideals of how citizens and government should relate to each other - and achieving respect and success among other nations.

All Lectures:
1. Self-Evident Truths
2. Ideas and Ideologies
3. Europeans of Colonial America
4. Natives and Slaves of Colonial America
5. The Colonies in the Atlantic World, c. 1750
6. The Seven Years' War
7. The British Constitution
8. George III and the Politics of Empire
9. Politics in British America before 1760
10. James Otis and the Writs of Assistance Case
11. The Search for Order and Revenue
12. The Stamp Act and Rebellion in the Streets
13. Parliament Digs in Its Heels, 1766 - 1767
14. The Crisis of Representation
15. The Logic of Loyalty and Resistance
16. Franklin and the Search for Reconciliation
17. The Boston Massacre
18. The British Empire and the Tea Act
19. The Boston Tea Party and the Coercive Acts
20. The First Continental Congress
21. Lexington and Concord
22. Second Continental Congress and Bunker Hill
23. Thomas Paine and Common Sense
24. The British Seizure of New York
25. The Declaration of Independence
26. The War for New York and New Jersey
27. Saratoga, Philadelphia, and Valley Forge
28. The Creation of State Constitutions
29. Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom
30. Franklin, Paris, and the French Alliance
31. The Articles of Confederation
32. Yorktown and the End of the War
33. The Treaty of Paris of 1783
34. The Crises of the 1780s
35. African Americans and the Revolution
36. The Constitutional Convention
37. The United States Constitution
38. The Antifederalist Critique
39. The Federalists' Response
40. The Bill of Rights
41. Politics in the 1790s
42. The Alien and Sedition Acts
43. The Election of 1800
44. Women and the American Revolution
45. The Revolution and Native Americans
46. The American Revolution as Social Movement
47. Reflections by the Revolutionary Generation
48. The Meaning of the Revolution