LAW 884: Historical Foundations of the Constitution Short Course
All students take Constitutional Law, but how many have examined the Constitution’s foundational documents–for example, the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers, Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? What about the key sources from Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Cold War, and the Great Society, all of which conferred ever-increasing power on the federal government while focusing attention on the plight of racial minorities, women, and workers? This course will analyze such primary-source documents, which are essential to understanding our Constitution. Students need not have any historical background. [1]
