From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History:

"The financial crisis and the ensuing economic recession of 2007-09 serve to remind us that such crises and downturns have been recurring events in American history. They have occurred on average once every fifteen to twenty years since 1789. In this seminar we will study the causes of some major financial crises—those of 1792, 1837-39, 1873, 1893-95, 1907, 1929-33, 1989-90, and 2007-09—and will explore the social, political, and economic consequences of the crises. We will discuss the typical pattern of most of the crises, differences among them, and issues such as whether legislative and regulatory responses to a crisis make subsequent crises more or less likely. Participants will visit the Museum of American Finance on Wall Street to gain a better understanding of the complexities of our financial system, how it developed over two centuries, and how periodically it has crashed on the rocks of excessive risk taking and speculation."

From the American Bar Association:

"The institute will provide teachers with the training and resources to engage students in the history of landmark federal cases. This year's institute will study trials under the Sedition Act of 1798, Ex parte Merryman and debates on habeas corpus during the Civil War, and a trial of bootleggers during Prohibition. Faculty will include David Cole of the Georgetown Law School, Saul Cornell of Fordham University, Linda Greenhouse of Yale Law School and formerly Supreme Court reporter for the New York Times, and Michael Vorenberg of Brown University. Teachers will also visit the Supreme Court and the U.S. Courthouse for the District of Columbia."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"In 1776 Americans began a struggle to create an independent nation. In 1861, they began a struggle to preserve or splinter that nation. This seminar will examine the historical circumstances that led to the American Revolution and the drafting of the Constitution, focusing in part on the unresolved problems and conflicts that contributed to the coming of the Civil War. The history of these two great wars will be told through the stories of individual men and women who lived, and died, in defense of their cause."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"This seminar will focus on the personal and political partnership between Abigail and John Adams during the American Revolution and the creation of the infant republic. Readings will include My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams, edited by Margaret Hogan and James Taylor, and John Adams by David McCullough. Joseph Ellis will share draft chapters from his forthcoming book on Abigail and John for comments and criticism. Participants will visit the Adams Homestead at Quincy. Students will also create a packet of teaching materials for classroom use on the question: was Abigail a feminist?"

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"High school and undergraduate survey courses on U.S. history before 1865 rightly treat the War of Independence and the Civil War as decisive events. Three other significant conflicts of the period, the French and Indian War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican-American War, rate mentions in the textbooks, but their events are usually treated cursorily, and their impacts are rarely considered, if they are mentioned at all. This seminar will demonstrate the powerfully ironic significance of these less well-known imperial wars by exploring the linkages between them and the far more familiar revolutionary civil wars that define this period in American history. For in fact the decisive victory of Britain and its colonists in the French and Indian War brought on the collapse of the British empire, just twelve years after the triumphal Peace of Paris (1763); the similarly decisive victory of the United States over Mexico, confirmed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), precipitated the crises that led, in thirteen years' time, to the disintegration of the Union. The War of 1812, usually seen as having ended indecisively with the Treaty of Utrecht (1815), not only decided the fate of native peoples east of the Mississippi and lent a powerful impetus to the democratization of American electoral politics, but also created an ideological justification for warfare that endures in American political culture to the present day. Our exploration of these striking effects will, we hope, encourage the participants both to reconsider the dynamics of early American history and to re-think the contexts in which they discuss with their students the impact of warfare on the formation of the American Republic."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865 abolished slavery in the United States, formally, officially, and legally. A century and a half after emancipation, however, the question of slavery still roils the waters of American life. 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 current debate about the meaning of slavery for American life."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"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."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"This seminar will proceed from two premises: 1) that the Revolution had many meanings to its diverse participants; and 2) that its causes, dynamics, and outcomes, have been interpreted and reinterpreted, ever since. Therefore, we will read secondary works of various historians who have disagreed sharply on how to interpret the American Revolution; and we will examine a variety of primary documents through which we can better understand how people at the time understood what they were fighting for and what outcomes they hoped to enjoy. 'Who shall write the history of the American Revolution?' wrote John Adams to Thomas Jefferson (in 1815). 'Nobody,' Jefferson replied, 'except merely its external facts . . . The life and soul of its history must be forever unknown.' Almost two centuries later, let's discover the answers to that question for ourselves."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"Professor Gordon Wood investigates George Washington's contributions to the creation of the American republic. The bicentennial of Washington's death in 1999 sparked a reassessment of this extraordinary man and his times. He was commander in chief of the Revolutionary army, a leader in the formation of the Constitution of 1787, and the first president of the new United States. Despite these great accomplishments, he remains strangely distant and inaccessible to us in the early twenty-first century. This brief but intensive course helps explain the sources and meaning of Washington's greatness."

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"The American Revolution describes two different historical events. One was the War for Independence, 1775-1783, that began with Lexington and Concord and concluded with the Treaty of Paris and the evacuation of the British from New York. The 'other' American Revolution occurred in the hearts and minds of the American people. This revolution began in the pamphlets and protests of the 1760s, continued in the Continental Congress, and helped inspire new institutions that emerged after the War for Independence: the abolition of slavery in the North, expanded public roles for women, and the separation of church and state. Both revolutions had global historical significance. George Washington was the pivotal figure in the War for Independence but he played an important role in the second revolution as well. Washington was a representative Virginia planter at the outset of the Revolutionary War. By the time the war concluded, Washington's ideas about slavery, race, and republican government had been transformed. His leadership after the Revolution helped insure the conservation of both American Revolutions. This course will be taught at Mount Vernon, and will utilize the rich resources available at this historic site."