Lecturer: Holly Brewer, Burke Chair of American History and Associate Professor
Department of History, University of Maryland

The American Revolution led to the birth of public education as we know it because, as many founders argued, unlike aristocracy where a few men born to power ruled, democracy required an educated citizenry who could govern themselves. While educating the public took place on the state level, not the national, and policies were thus characterized by dramatic differences, the promises of the Revolution opened a national debate over what those promises meant. The founders’ ideas about who could or should consent to their own government framed their policies for who should be educated and in what disciplines and to what degree: these promises of equality did not necessarily include everyone.

Co-hosted by the Department of History and the Center for Global Migration Studies