Summary Of Joanne Freeman's Five Tips For Studying The American Revolution

Professor Joanne Freeman: Five Tips for Studying the American Revolution
Caitlyn Everhart
Political Science 204
Mr. Ryan Enlow

Abstract

Professor Joanne Freeman unravels her plan for her class to make them be aware of the how the American Revolution came about but to get passed most but not all of the dates and facts of the war. Freeman explains that the American Revolution entailed some remarkable transformations like, converting British colonists into American revolutionaries. This lecture examines the American Revolution from a broad perspective. The best part about her lecture is that she breaks it down into five easy steps to understand, and for her being a professor at Yale she probably is one of the top favorite teachers just because of how easy she breaks her lectures down. Freeman relates herself to one of the Founders, John Adams, because he wasn’t up to the status quo of every other Founder as she states it. John was humorous
and blunt, but serious and revealing, and that’s how she is in her lectures.

Professor Joanne Freeman is a very intelligent woman that likes to see her students succeed in such a long and very detailed class. Freeman’s video starts off by unraveling her plan for the class, and predicts what she thinks her students thoughts are about the American Revolution. Joanne explains how in high school all that was mainly stressed about the American Revolution was the Declaration of Independence and George Washington, Paul Revere, and just a “bunch of battles”. Freeman makes it clear to the students to be aware and get passed what you’ve been taught earlier in your life, and she breaks it down into five simple and comprehensive tips to help understand the Revolution and just piece it altogether. The first tip that Freeman lectures about is by avoiding thinking about the Revolution in terms of a series of facts and dates, in her terms “a fact bubble.” (Freeman). In greater detail Freeman means that a lot of dates are involved with the Revolution and some are more important than others, and some are just a string of facts that are there to explain the outcomes that occurred. Like the outcomes that occurred there was a word that disgusted the Founders of that time period, so tip number two is words like democracy, liberty and freedom, aren’t all that they seem to be.
“Democracy has little to no meaning in the colonial era, but you have to understand the subtle ways this was a moment of defining terms and transformation.” (Freeman). In greater detail Joanne tells the students to think about the meaning of words, not to just read the definitions, but also to not assume about the words and how they describe the event because they could’ve meant something completely different now than what they did back then. An example of one of the many words that were brought up around the American Revolution era is democracy. The professor says that “democracy is a good thing to us now, but not back then.” Especially Alexander Hamilton, she reads a quote from him and he states democracy as chaos, a disease in fact, and being a Founder it was part of the status
quo. Speaking of The Founders, tip three from Freeman is: think of the “Founders” as real people rather than a mystical historic figure. In easier ways to understand, what Joanne means is that the Founders were normal people, she expressed that we tend to forget that they were people not demi-gods walking around with their chest and head held high. The professor also stressed about not getting caught up on trying to read the way they spoke, reading and listening to their language from their era sounds more intelligent and inspiring than it really is. A big point that was brought to the student’s attention was the breakdown of looking over the opposing points and putting them together like a puzzle to better understand how it all happened and why. The fourth tip from Freeman was “remembering the Founders aren’t the only people who made the Revolution. An easier way to understand this is to know that the Founders weren’t men that were dressed up to have a quiet conversation. The Revolution was a popular uprising by a vast amount of colonists fought on American ground by all kinds of Americans. The Founders aren’t the only ones who mattered, the Revolution grounded on the ideas and beliefs of the people throughout many levels of society. Last but not least the fifth tip is remembering the importance of historical contingency and that anything could’ve happened during the Revolution and the outcome wasn’t inevitable. The way Freeman explains this tip is that a lot of people assume too much of what went on about the colonists, and that it’s important to know nobody knew what was going to happen in that era because if they did it would’ve probably been much more dramatic. Professor Joanne Freeman does a great job of presenting the logic behind the decisions of the day and the feelings of the people and she doesn’t spend a lot of time on dates and facts. Also, to be able to take out the preconceived notions out of the way and to view what happened, and to understand nothing was certain throughout the American Revolution are an eye opener.
References
Professor Joanne Freeman: Five Tips for Studying the American Revolution. Perf. Joanne Freeman. Web.