Hillsdale Hostel

On July 4, 1776, America declared its independence from Great Britain. This act marked the culmination of a debate over the nature and purpose of just government that began in the early 1760s and would lead eventually to the surrender of the British at Yorktown in 1781. Held at Hillsdale’s Kirby Center in Washington, D.C., this seminar will consider the key principles and major figures and events of the American Revolution.

On July 4, 1776, America declared its independence from Great Britain, appealing to the universal and timeless ideas of natural law, equality, rights, and consent to justify the revolution. These ideas informed the writing of the Constitution of 1787, which established a governmental structure designed to secure the freedom of the American people. This Hostel will consider the American Founding through an examination of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and key writings of leading Founders.

Great literature reflects and shapes the character of a civilization and of its citizens. Thus Homer was called the “schoolteacher of the Greeks.” Who have been the schoolteachers of America, and more generally, of the citizens of the West? This seminar will examine the great conversation in Western literature, beginning in ancient Greece and Rome and continuing through Renaissance Europe, Elizabethan England, and the United States.

For 237 years, the American Constitution has served as a bulwark of limited government. Over the last century, its authority has been challenged by proponents of progressivism. This seminar will contrast the Founders’ view with the progressive view of topics such as the family, civil rights, free speech, foreign policy, and religious liberty.

The idea that the free market is the best way to arrange the exchange of goods and services in a free society, an idea embraced by the American Founders, is not without controversy. This seminar will consider the theories of free market economics, theories that oppose the free market, and important economic controversies of the 20th century and of today.

Christianity is over 2,000 years old, with theological roots stretching back to the time of the ancient Hebrews. Despite widespread persecution, Christianity spread quickly and has had a profound impact on the development of Western Civilization. This seminar will consider the history of Christianity, beginning with the early Church and continuing through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and into the modern world.

Over the course of the 20th century, the federal government grew dramatically, as did divisions in American political and social life. Abroad, America emerged as the world’s greatest power, fighting and winning two World Wars and a Cold War. This seminar will consider the major political and historical developments and events of the previous century, including the rise of progressivism, liberalism, and the administrative state and the revolutions of the 1960s.

Beginning with George Washington, America has had several significant presidents over the course of its history, including A nd rew Jackson, Abra ha m Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. Held at Hillsdale’s Kirby Center in Washington, D.C., this seminar will consider the achievements of these presidents, including especially how their administrations marked a continuation or a repudiation of the American Founders’ constitutionalism, as well as their lasting impact on American politics.