This one-time-only course examines U.S. history from 1776 to the present, in advance of the nation’s semiquincentennial (or 250th birthday) in 2026. Taught jointly by Professors Joanne Freeman, David Blight, and Beverly Gage, the course emphasizes the history of the nation-state and the contested nature of American national identity. The class explores U.S. political history broadly conceived–not just as a realm of presidents and elections and wars (though there will be plenty of those) but as a conversation across time between citizens about what the United States is, was, and was meant to be. It proceeds from the premise that the American Revolution was the first but not the last radical act of national reimagining in U.S. history.
Joanne Freeman
Class of 1954 Professor of American History and of American Studies
David Blight
Sterling Professor of History and African American Studies
Beverly Gage
John Lewis Gaddis Professor of History
Dates & Location
Fall 2025
Tuesdays and Thursdays
11:35 a.m.–12:25 p.m.
Location TBD
Course Format and Registration
The lecture course meets two times per week. Lectures are open to fully enrolled Yale undergraduate students, as well as to registered members of the broader Yale and New Haven communities. All Yale students enrolled for credit are required to register for a discussion section that will meet once per week. Professors Freeman, Blight, and Gage will together record a brief discussion after lecture each Thursday, as a guide to engagement with the week’s lectures and texts.
The course is open to all Yale undergraduate students. There are no pre-requisites.
Students should register for this lecture like any other course.