Key Texts of the American Revolutionary Period and the Early Republic

This seminar will primarily be concerned with understanding the key texts of a time of profound change. The period leading up to the War of Independende, the revolution itself, and the early national period of US history mark a break not only in “American” but in world history. The range of materials we will read and discuss in this course will span from key political documents, such as the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights to literary texts from this time period, such as Susanna Rowson’s novel Charlotte Temple or Charles Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntly and seminal shot fictions such as Washington Irving’s “Rip van Winkle.”