The Origins of American Identity

June 5, 2004

In conjunction with the publication of Walter McDougall’s new book, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828 (HarperCollins, 2004), the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education held its Spring 2004 History Institute for Teachers on “New Perspectives on the Genesis of the USA” on June 5-6, 2004. Specially designed for secondary school teachers and curriculum supervisors, the program featured a series of lectures by leading scholars in several fields. Forty-three teachers from 15 states attended the weekend conference.

McDougall is co-chair, with David Eisenhower, of FPRI’s History Institute for Teachers. He is also the Alloy Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian.

His lecture at the History Institute focused on “The Origins of American Identity.”