FEDERALISTS VS. ANTIFEDERALISTS: WHY THE BATTLE OVER THE CONSTITUTION STILL MATTERS
Denver Brunsman / George Washington University
When the Constitutional Convention ended on September 17, 1787, the battle over the Constitution had just begun. Federalists (supporters of the Constitution) and Antifederalists (opponents) clashed in each of the original thirteen states. In this course, Professor Denver Brunsman will describe the battle of ideas and tactics that surrounded the process to ratify the Constitution. This is a story that every American should know because it not only settled the Constitution but also introduced patterns of political debate—local vs. national, urban vs. rural, elite vs. commoner—that persist to this day.
Denver Brunsman writes on the politics and social history of the American Revolution, early American republic, and British Atlantic world. His courses include “George Washington and His World,” taught annually at Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. His honors include the Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching Excellence and induction into the George Washington University Academy of Distinguished Teachers as well as research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities at the Newberry Library, Chicago; the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, University of Michigan; the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania; and the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon.