"Across the country, an increasing number of teachers have discovered an exciting and innovative way to promote a love of history. Easy-to-use software (such as Microsoft’s PhotoStory and Movie Maker, and Apple’s iMovie) and extensive copyright-free online images (like those found on the Library of Congress’s American Memory site) make it possible for students to create high quality, Ken Burns-like videos combining narration, text, graphics, and historical images and music. Professor Mintz, a pioneer in the application of new technologies to history teaching and research, will lead teachers through the process of creating digital documentaries with their students."

"This seminar views the American Declaration from three global perspectives: first, by placing 1776 into the context of contemporary international and global connections; second, by examining the legacy of the Declaration in the century or so after 1776; and third, by analyzing other declarations of independence since 1776 for their debts to -- and divergences from -- the American model. The result should be an enriched understanding of the importance of the Declaration in world history, as well as a novel account of what was truly revolutionary about the American Revolution."

"This seminar gives special emphasis to selected Jefferson manuscripts, offering participants an intensive exploration of primary sources—the building blocks of historical study. Monticello itself is the site of several study tours. Lecture and discussion topics include Jefferson and the West; archaeology at Monticello; African Americans at Monticello; the architecture of Monticello; Jefferson’s empire; the Louisiana Purchase; and Jefferson and the Constitution."

This seminar explores the history of the American antislavery movement, from its institutional and ideological origins in the post-Revolutionary era to the eve of the Civil War. A particular focus of the course will be the historical reality and mythology of the Underground Railroad, understood through the lives, strategies, writings, and fate of black abolitionists.

"This seminar is concerned with the formative period of early American constitutionalism. It begins with the pre-Revolutionary debate over the rights that the American colonists could claim under the 'ancient' imperial constitution, and ends with the escalating controversies over the interpretation of the Federal Constitution of 1787, culminating (in a sense) with the Supreme Court’s much-heralded decision in Marbury v. Madison and its less known but arguably more important holding in Stuart v. Laird a week later. In between, the heart of the seminar focuses on the constitutional experiments of the 1770s and 1780s: the adoption of the first state constitutions (1776-1780), and the framing and ratification of the Federal Constitution (1787-1791, if we throw in the first ten amendments)."

"This seminar will use a variety of resources: lectures, books, documents, video documentaries, and the resources on the internet. There will also be ample opportunity for participants and hosts to learn from one another. It will be, in short, a week of total immersion in the lengthy, occasionally dangerous, and (almost) always intriguing history of the Cold War, filled with debate and new information."

"This seminar, led by Ira Berlin, will view the development of chattel bondage in mainland North America from the perspective of the larger Atlantic world. Topics include the nature of the slave trade, the distinction between societies with slaves and slave societies, the evolution of plantation slavery, the transforming face of the Age of Revolutions, the remaking of slavery in the nineteenth century, and the contemporary debate about the meaning of slavery for American life."

"Between ca. 1500 and ca. 1800, the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean saw the creation, destruction, and re-creation of communities as a result of the movement of peoples, commodities, institutions, social practices, and cultural values. This seminar will explore the pan-Atlantic webs of association linking people, objects, and beliefs across and within the region. The best Atlantic history is interactive and crosses borders. The hope is that participants will enlarge their horizons by placing the standard early North American story in a larger framework."

"Professor Alan Brinkley and Michael Flamm explore the period between the end of the “Great War” and the beginning of the “Good War,” during which the United States experienced dramatic political, economic, social, and cultural change. The uneven prosperity of the 1920s contributed to the crisis of the 1930s. The Great Depression in turn led to the New Deal and the reshaping of the modern state, but also to a global crisis that produced World War II. Topics of discussion include the coming of the Great Depression, the New Deal, crime and culture in the 1920s and 1930s, and the beginning of World War II."

"Led by Patty Limerick, this seminar uses focused case studies to explore the larger picture of environmental history, a subject that has grown increasingly complex as historians deepen their understanding of the vast role of 'anthropogenic change' (also known as 'history!') in reconfiguring the places and processes we think of as 'natural.' Much of the seminar explores the transformation of attitudes, from the assessment of North American landscapes and resources by early settlers to the recognition of the changing "baseline" of global warming, along with a reconsideration—and revision—of the usual polarity pitting utilitarian approaches in opposition to preservationist approaches to the management of nature. With guest speakers drawn from the University of Colorado’s widely respected environmental studies program, the roles of naturalists and scientists in shaping American thinking about nature will receive particular attention, as will changes in the production and consumption of energy, a fundamental matter in environmental history. The concluding field trip to Rocky Mountain National Park gives the themes of the lectures and discussions a down-to-earth grounding in a visit to one of the most popular units in the nation’s public lands, while close attention to John McPhee’s 'Encounters with the Archdruid' provides a framework for drawing lessons from the past to enhance the quality of contemporary environmental decision-making."