Colonial and Revolutionary America

Stanford Professor Jack Rakove discusses the difference between the constitutionalization of politics verses politicizing the constitution, and how constitutional interpretation varied dependent upon political convictions. (December 5, 2009)

Stanford Professor Jack Rakove discusses the difference between the constitutionalization of politics verses politicizing the constitution, and how constitutional interpretation varied dependent upon political convictions. (December 3, 2009)

Stanford Professor Jack Rakove discusses the ratification of the US constitution, the legality and legitimacy of this process, and the advent of the new framework for the US government. (December 1, 2009)

Stanford Professor Jack Rakove discusses the the physical manuscript of the constitution, which shows the political mind at work; it allows us to see how President James Madison intellectually pondered its development. (November 19, 2008)

Stanford Professor Jack Rakove discusses the development of representation and suffrage policy in the constitution and the differing opinions of John and Abigail Adams. (November 17, 2008)

Professor Jack Rakove discusses the major dilemmas facing state governments in America as they attempted to draft and ratify constitutions following American independence. (November 14, 2008)

Professor Jack Rakove discusses American and British strategy during the Revolutionary War, focusing on the importance of revolutionary politics and the role of American civilian militias in securing American victory. (November 12, 2008)

Stanford Professor Jack Rakove argues that the length of the Revolutionary War caused the colonists to lose their easy patriotism. He discusses the first two phases of war. (November 10, 2008)

Jack Rakove discusses the Boston Tea Party and the ensuing legal acts and public actions that led the Americans to revolt against British rule and taxation. (November 5, 2008)

Jack Rakove discusses the conclusion of the American revolution and the advent of the constitution as a circumstantial product of a legally aware citizenry. (November 7, 2008)

Stanford Professor Rakove discusses the dilemma of colonial America's refutal of British taxation, and the repercussions of the British government's fateful choices. (October 29, 2008)

Stanford Professor Rakove begins to lay out the causes of the American Revolution and asserts the neo-whig argument that the revolution was primarily a result of constitutional disagreements. (October 27, 2008)

Stanford Professor Rakove discusses empire as a set of political relationships, commercial arrangements, and cultural norms. (October 22, 2008)

Stanford Professor Rakove discusses English history political reformation of the seventeenth century. (October 20, 2008)

Stanford Professor Rakove discusses the vitality and evolution of American religiosity, and the division of denominations caused by the empowerment of congregations. (October 15, 2008)

Stanford Professor Rakove discusses the influence of religion on American culture through a separation of church and state, but with the creation of a code of laws that reflect religious values. (October 13, 2008)

Professor Rakove discusses methods to weigh the importance of the manifest and latent implications of slavery. He illustrates the idea that race was used as a distinction between classes (being poor verses being a slave). (October 10, 2008)

Professor Rakove discusses how slavery is similar to feudalism with the major distinction that a slave owner was not obligated to keep their slave alive. He explains how slavery was essential in shaping American culture and the evolution (October 8, 2008)

Professor Rakove discusses the idea that slavery, as a status, has existed far longer than has the notion of liberty and equality, and that contemporary thought about slavery is foreign to historical viewpoints. (October 6, 2008)

Professor Rakove discusses how the colonization of British North America was different from any other colonization efforts. This was done by creating a society that resembles it's parent society demographically. (September 29, 2008)

Professor Rakove discusses how the southern colonies relied heavily on indentured labor, and created a system of gentry where cousins married cousins, women married very young, and families had extremely large numbers of children. (October 3, 2008)

Professor Rakove discusses two interpretive frameworks for thinking about American history: conventional (the strict timeframe of colonization) and Atlantic history, the dominant paradigm. (September 24, 2008)

Professor Rakove discusses the several aspects of Atlanticism and the way they enable historians to think comparatively about the two major sources of imperial settlement in the new world. (September 26, 2008)