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Is the American Republic on the Eve of Destruction or Renewal? What is the “It” and What is a “Legacy?”
In this DeVane Lecture Series course, Professor David Blight examines the impact of slavery and racism on American institutions, past, present, and future.  This course works from an assumption that racial slavery was a central theme of the history of the Americas, and its many endings and legacies live with us still.  The course will pose the question “can it happen here?”  In the 1930s, the “it” was fascism.  The “it” in this case is intended to mean not only slavery and its myriad forms of enduring inequalities, but also the very existence of a pluralistic, democratic, multi-ethnic government and society rooted in the rule of law and living under a common constitution.  There have been many pivot or hinge points in American history when the nature and existence of the American experiment, as well as human freedom and rights were on the line. The course will specifically examine slavery and Yale, the Civil War, and the many legacies of that period – political, constitutional, racial, economic, and commemorative – as they have shaped American life and polity ever since.

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