Department of English

Did ideas in print make the American Revolution? Is it possible that Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense converted colonists in the spring of 1776 to independence?  Is there something particular about the pamphlet or the city of Philadelphia that made the idea of the United States possible? In this class, students will start to ask if a text can really make a change, while they create texts themselves. Class will involve field trips to archival sites throughout Philadelphia as well as printing and papermaking. We will read and study Common Sense and other pro-and anti-Revolutionary texts to begin thinking about what makes a text work to change minds.