Led by: Prof. Andrew Robertson
Course Number: AMHI 631
Semesters: Fall 2017, Summer 2019, Spring 2021, Spring 2025
Image: Engraving by George C. Bingham titled Stump Speaking, depicting a candidate speaking to citizens, published by Goupil & Co., New York, 1856. (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC04075)
Spanning the period from the 1790s to the eve of the Civil War, this course traces the development, evolution, and practice of democracy in America. During this pivotal era, the possibilities of the Revolution were explored and tested. The bounds of suffrage contracted and expanded as politicians and voters learned to wield their political power. Americans continued to develop an identity distinct from their British forebears. Partisanship led to the establishment of political parties. Inchoate American print culture matured into a powerful tool able to disseminate information, and misinformation, to a nation that was growing apace. These developments shaped the American political landscape and cemented democracy as a viable system of governance.
Coming soon
Andrew Robertson, Associate Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center and Lehman College
Andrew W. Robertson is an associate professor of history at the Graduate Center and Lehman College, CUNY. From 2011 to 2017 he was deputy executive officer and then acting executive officer of the History PhD Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of The Oxford Handbook of Revolutionary Elections in the Americas, 1800–1910 (2017).
The views expressed in the course descriptions and lectures are those of the lead scholars.