This course will examine the origins of the American Revolution, the war experience for both the Continental Army and the home front, the Confederation, the Constitution, and the early years of the federal government.
Lead Scholar: Lindsay Chervinsky, George Washington Presidential Library
Master Teacher: Lindsey Charron
Image: Currier & Ives, The First Meeting of Washington and Lafayette—Philadelphia, August 3rd, 1777, New York, 1876 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Up to 24 PD hours
This course will examine the origins of the American Revolution, the war experience for both the Continental Army and the home front, the Confederation, the Constitution, and the early years of the federal government. Because George Washington occupied a central role during most of these pivotal moments, he left a voluminous written record that offers a colorful case study of the founding era. Critically, Washington’s record also reveals the lives of enslaved laborers, women, and Native allies, who often did not leave a written archive of their own. This course is based on stories, but will also include ample time for questions, suggested primary sources for classroom adaptation, and digital resources.
Currier & Ives, The First Meeting of Washington and Lafayette—Philadelphia, August 3rd, 1777, New York, 1876 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
You may attend Dr. Chervinsky’s book talk on Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic, regardless of which symposium course you select. Symposium participants who attend the optional book talks earn additional PD credit.
George Washington and William Lee, based on a painting by John Trumbull, engraved by Valentine Green, London, 1781 (Library of Congress)
Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a presidential historian and executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Previously, she was a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, a historian at the White House Historical Association, and a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. Chervinsky is the author of the award-winning books Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic and The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, and co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture. She regularly writes for public audiences in publications like The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, and offers commentary for outlets like CBS News, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.
Lindsey Charron has taught for eighteen years. She currently teaches eighth grade US History at Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Beach, California. She was selected as a James Madison Fellow in 2013 and has master’s degrees in history and educational technology. Lindsey is passionate about teaching with primary sources and utilizing technology in the classroom. She is both a George Washington Teacher Fellow and a Monticello Barringer Fellow, and she has attended many Gilder Lehrman Institute and NEH seminars. Lindsey serves as a National Oratory Fellow with Ford’s Theatre and as a master teacher with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. She was selected as the California Council for Social Studies Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2020 and as the California History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in 2021.