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Junior/Senior · 3 weeks (July 13 - August 2) · 3 credits
"We hold these truths to be self-evident" is perhaps the most famous political expression in U.S. history. Among the truths the signers to the Declaration of Independence endorsed was "that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." As the nation grew, citizens of every social class appealed to these ideas to claim their rights and to define American democracy in new ways.
In this program, you'll explore these "truths," and the evolution of democracy and dissent in America, as you focus on some of the most dramatic and important episodes in American history, including:
- The struggles over the emancipation of slaves in the nineteenth century
- Expanded rights for women and working people in the twentieth century
- Free-speech issues
- The civil rights movement
- Religion-based critiques of American culture, and
- Conservative critiques of American liberalism
As you examine these issues, you'll investigate the ways in which political expression takes different forms in modern American culture. You'll also hear from speakers of contrasting political persuasions addressing their experiences with dissent and democracy.
An informed citizenry is a necessary component of democracy, and the library is perhaps the most democratic of our institutions, collecting and making available information on all views and perspectives. But finding “good” information has never been so easy—or so difficult. Today’s students need to become adept at accessing and assessing information from an expanding array of sources in a variety of formats.
As a student in this program you'll also participate in a series of hands-on instruction sessions in the Uris Library Electronic Classroom, where you'll actively explore and work with the Cornell University Library's large, prestigious research collections (both print and digital), and you'll tour the Library’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Division. You'll learn strategies and techniques to enhance your lifelong research skills as you approach your college years, and you'll improve or refine your “information literacy”—your ability to identify, retrieve, evaluate, and use information effectively and efficiently.
Finally, you'll attend a session on the college admissions process.
To be eligible for this program, you must have completed your junior or senior year of high school by June 2008.
Course
You'll be enrolled in Democracy and Its Discontents (AMST 1240). This course meets Mondays through Fridays, 8:30-11:15 a.m. You'll also attend eight to ten seminars between 2 and 3:30 in the afternoon on days to be arranged at the start of the program.
Academic director
"To research and write a book is ultimately a process of discovery: discovery of the individuals and ideas as they intertwine one with the other to create (for an historian) a given past; and a discovery of self, of one's own ideas and commitments, in that process. To teach, then, is to engage students in that complex interplay, and to take deep pleasure as they explore their own power of discovery."
Nick Salvatore is a professor of American history in the interdisciplinary American Studies program in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences and is the Maurice and Hinda Neufeld Founders Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations in Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He has been at Cornell since 1981.
Professor Salvatore has been formally recognized by Cornell students for his outstanding teaching and has served on a number of committees. He also has chaired the Cornell Presidential Research Scholars Program, which connects undergraduates with faculty mentors.
Professor Salvatore, author of three widely reviewed books and numerous essays, has received some of the historical profession's most prestigious national awards.
He is a member of the Society of American Historians and recently completed a biography of Reverend C. L. Franklin and the intersection of racial identity and religious belief in twentieth-century American political and social life. His book, Singing in a Strange Land: C. L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America, was published in February 2005.
For more information about Professor Salvatore, visit his Web site at www.nicksalvatore.com or listen to an NPR interview with him from the March 9, 2005 edition of News & Notes with Ed Gordon.
Additional faculty members
Lance Heidig, reference and instruction librarian and Uris Library selector in Instruction, Research, and Information Services, has worked for the Cornell University Library since 1984. His work there concentrates on the integration of traditional and digital public services, with a focus on Web-based library instruction. He also coordinates the library’s activities in support of Cornell’s New Student Reading Project and the library’s annual undergraduate Book Collection Contest.
Required reading
Students will be given access to articles via Blackboard. The charge for printing the complete packet is approximately $70.