From the Newberry Library website:

"This course will explore the social history of Chicago in the years between the Great Fire of 1871 and the modern Civil Rights Movement. Our core texts will be works of historical fiction, including selections from Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and Richard Wright's Native Son. Using these as windows into the city's vibrant past, we will investigate the changing texture of everyday life amidst vast social, political, and economic change."

From the Montpelier website:

"What is the purpose of a Bill of Rights? While we may think of the Bill of Rights as a charter of 'rights,' the first ten amendments to the Constitution are, in fact, a list of restrictions on government power. Do they also function as marks of the People's sovereignty and/or foundations for a democratic polity?

In this Seminar you will examine the idea of delineating the rights of persons as contrasted with defining the powers of government, examining the debates among the founders over the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. How is the project of constitution-making continued in the process of amendment?"

"Participants will receive a collection of primary documents in advance of the seminar, specific to the content of each program, which will be the basis of most discussions. They include writings by James Madison, sections of The Federalist Papers, selections from Antifederalist writers, and other fundamental documents. Each seminar includes an intensive session on ways of reading a document of political or constitutional theory. . . . Each seminar will conclude with the lecture 'American Citizenship as Constitutional Citizenship: The Exemplar of James Madison.'

Teachers will also become acquainted with the curriculum We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution, which is widely used across the nation and is compatible with state and national standards. All participants will receive a complete classroom set of the We the People textbooks, appropriate to the grade level they teach. A classroom set includes 30 student texts and 1 teacher's guide."

From the Montpelier website:

"What does it mean to found a country with a 'constitution?' How is an enterprise like the United States begun or put together in the first place?

What is the relevance of a Founding to a country that has grown, evolved, and changed over more than 200 years? How much of America (its institutions, its politics, its people) was founded through the endeavors in Madison's time to establish, elaborate, maintain, and preserve the Constitution of the United States?

The central focus of this Seminar will be Madison's Notes on the Federal Convention of 1787, which he wrote to provide future generations with an account of the creation of the Constitution, so that it could be properly maintained. He intended its drafting to be seen an honorable and hopeful, and he wanted others to have a guide for making similarly ambitious constitutions of their own."

"Participants will receive a collection of primary documents in advance of the seminar, specific to the content of each program, which will be the basis of most discussions. They include writings by James Madison, sections of The Federalist Papers, selections from Antifederalist writers, and other fundamental documents. Each seminar includes an intensive session on ways of reading a document of political or constitutional theory. . . . Each seminar will conclude with the lecture 'American Citizenship as Constitutional Citizenship: The Exemplar of James Madison.'

Teachers will also become acquainted with the curriculum We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution, which is widely used across the nation and is compatible with state and national standards. All participants will receive a complete classroom set of the We the People textbooks, appropriate to the grade level they teach. A classroom set includes 30 student texts and 1 teacher's guide."

From the Montpelier website:

"Citizenship has been considered classically as the single most basic aspect of any constitutional order. And yet the 18th-century founders left the question unresolved. Does the addition of the 14th Amendment in the 1860s represent a continuation of the Founding or a new constitutional order?

What does it mean to be a citizen of a constitutionally founded nation? Among its other innovations, American constitutionalism has redefined the concept of citizenship and political community. How does the Constitution help us define what it means to be an American? How has our understanding of what is a citizen of the American constitutional order evolved (or devolved)?"

"Participants will receive a collection of primary documents in advance of the seminar, specific to the content of each program, which will be the basis of most discussions. They include writings by James Madison, sections of The Federalist Papers, selections from Antifederalist writers, and other fundamental documents. Each seminar includes an intensive session on ways of reading a document of political or constitutional theory. . . . Each seminar will conclude with the lecture 'American Citizenship as Constitutional Citizenship: The Exemplar of James Madison.'

Teachers will also become acquainted with the curriculum We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution, which is widely used across the nation and is compatible with state and national standards. All participants will receive a complete classroom set of the We the People textbooks, appropriate to the grade level they teach. A classroom set includes 30 student texts and 1 teacher's guide."

From the Montpelier website:

"The very idea of 'constitution' is one of the crucial inventions of our founding. How did Federalists and Antifederalists view the nature of a constitution at the time of the founding of the United States?

We will use the concept of a constitution to develop a deeper understanding of American constitutionalism. What is the relationship between a 'constitution' and a social compact among the People, or a contract between citizens and government?

The associated innovations of a Bill of Rights, amendment, and citizenship will be highlighted from the perspective of the unprecedented process of constitution-making as a means to define the contours of a new political world."

"Participants will receive a collection of primary documents in advance of the seminar, specific to the content of each program, which will be the basis of most discussions. They include writings by James Madison, sections of The Federalist Papers, selections from Antifederalist writers, and other fundamental documents. Each seminar includes an intensive session on ways of reading a document of political or constitutional theory. . . . Each seminar will conclude with the lecture 'American Citizenship as Constitutional Citizenship: The Exemplar of James Madison.'

Teachers will also become acquainted with the curriculum We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution, which is widely used across the nation and is compatible with state and national standards. All participants will receive a complete classroom set of the We the People textbooks, appropriate to the grade level they teach. A classroom set includes 30 student texts and 1 teacher's guide."

Taking a fresh perspective on the Revolution, this seminar asks why we still generally concentrate on the lives and thoughts of the Founding Fathers when in fact ordinary people carried the burden of the American Revolution. How should the people be restored to narratives of Revolution? Were the political ideas that energized their participation the same as those of the celebrated leaders? Did the people stake out more radical positions than did the elite planters and lawyers? What exactly did the Revolution involve for ordinary Americans who lived in small communities?

The seminar will consist of three sessions. The first two, featuring lecture and discussion, will focus on the close analysis of images and primary documents. The third will concentrate on the integration of seminar ideas and material into lesson plans using the Center's Seminar-to-Classroom Guide.

This seminar will explore a controversial era shrouded in myths and memories. Among the topics it will examine are the presidencies of John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon; the civil rights movement; the Vietnam War; the New Left; the counterculture; the women's movement; the gay movement; the conservative movement; the international dimension of youth protest; and the legacies of the 1960s. The aim of the seminar is to provide a balanced history of a turbulent time that continues to influence American politics, society, and culture.

From Bombingham to Selma, Montgomery to Tuskegee, Alabama's people and places left an indelible mark on the world in the 1950s and 1960s. From Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver to the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Alabama citizens have been at the forefront of the crusade to improve African Americans' lot in life in the United States. Selma's citizens began a march in 1965 to protest the killing of one man. This day became known as Bloody Sunday. Now the citizens of Selma have created a people's museum so the world will not forget those tumultuous days and will remember the people's stories. Teachers in this workshop work with noted scholars, converse with living legends, participate in discussion groups, meet foot soldiers of the movement, and travel to key sites of memory dedicated to the preservation of the history of the modern Civil Rights Movement.