The broad goal of the course is to develop a working body of knowledge and insight into the complexity of the Founding Era. We Americans all carry a simplified version of the founding story, but the more we learn about it, the more many-sided and less straightforward it becomes. How do we sort out the various forces at play at the time such as radicalism, republicanism, conservativism, democracy and economic materialism? What was the debate over the Constitution really about? How have different schools of history interpreted the debate? Why is our interest in the founding period so intense today? Why is scholarship about it so diverse and perpetual? Why are bookstores filled with best-selling biographies and analyses of the founders and the framers/ And why does the U.S. Supreme Court cite with increasing frequency the Federalist  or Anti-Federalist arguments from the Ratification Debate?