"I'M TALKING ABOUT FREEDOM!"
This year in 11th Grade U.S. History and Government, we will think, read, talk, and write about American history through the lens of freedom.
No idea is more fundamental to Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals and as a nation than freedom. Freedom or liberty, with which it is almost always used interchangeably—is deeply embedded in the documentary record of our history and the language of everyday life.
Indeed, the history of the United States is, in part, a story of debates, disagreements, and struggles over freedom. I have found that attention to clashing definitions of freedom and the struggles of different groups to achieve freedom, as they understood it offers a way of making sense of the larger debates, battles and vast transformations that took place in American history.