The Early American Republic and the Problem of Governance

FAIN: FS-50253-10

Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA 19107-5679)
John Lauritz Larson (Project Director: March 2010 to May 2012)
Michael A. Morrison (Co Project Director: March 2010 to May 2012)

A four-week seminar for sixteen college and university teachers on the experience of governance under the Constitution in the first two generations after independence.

This four-week program, to be held at the Library Company of Philadelphia and led by co-directors John L. Larson and Michael A. Morrison, will focus on the experience of governance under the U.S. Constitution during the first two generations after independence. Participants will approach the founding as a grand experiment in republican self-government, something new and untried, the outcome of which remained profoundly uncertain until after the American Civil War. Readings and critical discussions will consider works by the co-directors, the guest scholars, and other historians, as well as Alexis de Tocqueville's 1835 classic Democracy in America. Participants will also pursue individual research projects using the extraordinary resources of many Philadelphia-area institutions. The intellectual stimulation and time for scholarship should result in the creation of publications and teaching materials that participants will be able to incorporate into their curricula.