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What America's Founders Learned From Antiquity

Series: What America's Founders Learned From Antiquity
5
(1)
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Episodes
24
Rating
TVPG
Year
2024
Language
English
Publisher
The Great Courses

About

In this course, you'll explore the ethos of classicism that permeated the founders' era and how the American revolutionaries identified with the ancient Roman republic.

Related Subjects

Episodes

1 to 3 of 24

1. Antiquity Erupts in 18th-Century America

29m

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Relive the discovery of ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum, which brought the classical world vividly alive for 18th-century Europeans. Learn how founding-era Americans were steeped in classical antiquity through their education and culture, and why they looked to ancient Rome and Greece to understand their own turbulent times and to create a new republic based in representation and equality.

2. A Republic of Farmers: America and Early Rome

31m

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In the 1760s, ancient Rome became politically relevant to Colonial Americans. Grasp how colonists, predominantly farmers, drew upon Roman thinkers' notions of the farming class as the backbone of civic virtue, independence, and freedom. Note the ways in which the Roman republic became a language of opposition for Americans to oppressive taxation by the globally expanding British empire.

3. The Dangers of Empire: Rome and Britain

32m

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As of 1763, harsh taxation gradually eroded American colonists' contentment with British rule. Here, trace the colonists' response to British policy, as they began to view the British as a tyrannical empire, drawing on both contemporary and ancient writings. See how Americans used the contrast between the Roman republic and the corrupt Roman empire to make sense of their political dilemma.

4. Are We Rome? America's Conflicted Identity

33m

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Assess America's associations with ancient Rome and how it became part of the national fabric of America. Within this story, look at two fundamental perceptions: the identification of America with the Roman republic-the society of simple farmers-and, in contrast, with the aggressive Roman empire. Observe how these associations have shaped the nation's ideological dialogue and politics.

5. American Ambivalence Toward Ancient Greece

31m

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Investigate Americans' perceptions during the founding era of ancient Greece. Note their selective admiration for Spartan military history, and their wariness of the perceived instability of Athenian democracy. Witness the gradual transformation of these perspectives into the modern view of Greece as the cradle of democracy and Western civilization.

6. The Founders on Carthage and Germania

33m

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Beyond Rome and Greece, the founders took inspiration from ancient Carthage. Learn about their view of Carthage as a break-away Phoenician colony with admirable government, whose major threats from Rome mirrored America's own from the British. See also how American revolutionaries invoked the history of the Germanic Saxons' subjection to British rule to criticize the British monarchy.

Extended Details

  • Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

The Great Coursesdirector
The Great Coursesproducer
Caroline Wintereractor