American History

Our class will be a combination of reviewing history, the ideas that drove it, what happened both short-term at the time of certain events, and the long-term results experienced during our day. We will consider the legal battles and actual laws that set the relationship between people, places and things for better or worse. Some of it may be redundant; yet, it is always good to review for our own sake as we contemplate how America began long ago and the various philosophical strands the early Colonials and the Founders drew upon to build a community.

Knowing what the present “union” was historically based upon makes it easier to defend it against the anomalies of the day. Will we be able to critically analyze from a prudential biblical and constitutional perspective what the “powers that be” do and how they justify it? Or should we numbly nod our head to the political pragmatists of the day whether Left-wing or Right-wing? Should America stay together as a “union”? Or decentralize into independent republics and city-states? What can we learn from our past?...

Course Objectives:

Class objectives will vary and be stated weekly. Essentially, however, we will attempt to discern throughout this course what it meant to be free under God and what it took to maintain that freedom...or lose it.

Texts:

• A History of the American People by Paul Johnson