Whose America? with Kermit Roosevelt | Virtual Course

Registration

• Tuition for this course is $200. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
• This course is limited to participants who are 18 years of age or older.
• Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email [email protected].
• Registration opens for Delancey Society on August 16, for Rosenbach members on August 23, and for the general public on August 30. 

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Description 

Are we living in the America the Founders designed? If not, how did we depart from their vision? And is our different America better or worse? Kermit Roosevelt explores the America the Founders designed, and the America that came to be, through documents and books in the Rosenbach’s American history collection, such as the first printing of The Federalist Papers, a draft of the Declaration of Independence, materials related to the election of 1800, and writings from Lincoln and Jefferson about the concept of liberty. Participants will read these original documents and discuss the ways they have transformed American history and thought. How have our understandings of basic American ideals such as liberty and equality changed over time? How are these changes visible in our history and constitutional structure?    

The Rosenbach will provide links to the texts of all documents used in the class, as well as digital scans of other unique original materials from its American history collection. 

Course syllabus

Materials for Session 1 

Draft Declaration of Independence AMS 1084-07

Jefferson draft of Declaration

Jefferson Declaration final copy

About the Instructor

Kermit Roosevelt works in a diverse range of fields, focusing on constitutional law and conflict of laws. His latest academic book, The Nation that Never Was (University of Chicago, 2022) offers an alternative American origin story. His prior book, The Myth of Judicial Activism: Making Sense of Supreme Court Decisions (Yale, 2006) sets out standards by which citizens can determine whether the Supreme Court is abusing its authority. He has also published in Virginia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and Columbia Law Review, among others. He has represented a detainee in the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He also is the author of two novels, Allegiance (Regan Arts, 2015) and In the Shadow of the Law (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005). Professor Roosevelt spoke at the Rosenbach as part of the Federalist Papers series in Spring 2018 and taught a course on presidential history in support of the Rosenbach’s 2023 exhibition Succession: Why Presidential History Matters Now.

This program was sponsored by Pamela Schreiber.