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The Formation & Development of the American Republic

Twenty dated accounts of the institutions, decisions, and individuals who shaped American constitutional government, including its exclusions and subsequent reforms.

  1. Magna Carta and inherited limits on monarchy (1215–1689)
  2. Colonial representative assemblies (1619–1750)
  3. Religious liberty in Rhode Island (1636–1663)
  4. Pennsylvania and the Quaker experiment (1681–1701)
  5. The Great Awakening and public argument (1730s–1740s)
  6. The Albany Plan and intercolonial cooperation (1754)
  7. The Stamp Act resistance (1765–1766)
  8. Committees of correspondence (1772–1774)
  9. The Declaration of Independence (1776)
  10. Revolutionary military leadership (1775–1783)
  11. Diplomacy and the French alliance (1776–1783)
  12. The Articles of Confederation (1781–1787)
  13. The Northwest Ordinance (1787)
  14. The Constitutional Convention (1787)
  15. Ratification and the Federalist debate (1787–1788)
  16. The Bill of Rights (1789–1791)
  17. A peaceful transfer of party power (1800–1801)
  18. Abolition and the Civil War amendments (1863–1870)
  19. Women’s suffrage and the Nineteenth Amendment (1848–1920)
  20. Civil rights and enforceable equal citizenship (1954–1965)