Years That Changed History: 1776

In this first lecture, step into a world on the brink. As George Washington faces the collapse of his army in January 1776, discover a revolution far bigger than America. From the Boston Tea Party to global trade empires and Enlightenment ideas.

Trace the coming of the American Revolution to conditions within both India and China, in their dealings with the British East India Company. Learn how the actions of its directors left the Company with both massive debts and huge surpluses of tea.

Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet, Common Sense, was a critical document of revolutionary ideology. Grasp its debt to the thinking of the Enlightenment, as it articulated and advanced the idea of independence, and the oppressive nature of monarchy.

Smallpox was a pervasive and devastating problem in 1776 America. Follow the virus and its effects through many theaters of the American Revolution, and into Lakota country, Texas, Mexico, and beyond.

The year 1776 saw the rise of a major Native American nation. Trace how the Lakota reclaimed the Black Hills of the Great Plains, central to their cosmology, establishing trade and a horse-based rule, and subduing other Native nations in the process.

Take stock of the revolution in thought known as the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century, largely led by clergy and university professors. Encounter the work of important philosophers such as David Hume and Thomas Reid.