Revisiting the Founding Era: The Founding and Its Importance Today

Revisiting the Founding Era – Keynote with Akhil Amar

In this keynote to our series of public programs, Revisiting the Founding Era, constitutional scholar Akhil Amar, author and Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, describes the dynamic nature of the 1787 constitutional convention, provides short profiles of its key players and relationships, and outlines the issues that dominated their arguments. Amar shows us how the preoccupations of the new republic mirror the preoccupations of our own time and how the brilliance of the Founding Fathers led to the creation of one of the greatest and most enduring documents in human history. 

Revisiting the Founding Era is part of a new ongoing series called First Principles, which is co-sponsored by Ridgefield Library, Keeler Tavern Museum and History Center, Ridgefield Historical Society, Drum Hill Chapter of the DAR, Books on the Common, Connecticut Project for the Constitution, and Ridgefield League of Women Voters. 

Please register here. 

Other upcoming programs in the series are:

Sunday, February 24, 2 p.m. (Ridgefield Library)
An illustrated talk with art historian Michael Norris about George Washington and his portrayal in art.

Sunday, March 10 at 2 p.m. (KTM&HC)
A living history program for young people about slavery, featuring Cheyney McKnight of Not Your Momma’s History.

 Saturday, March 23 at 1 p.m.
A field trip and lecture at the John Jay Homestead.
($20 – please register at ridgefieldhistoricalsociety.org or call 203-438-5821).

Revisiting the Founding Era is a three-year national initiative of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, presented in partnership with the American Library Association and the National Constitution Center, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant provides 100 public libraries across the country the opportunity to use historical documents to spark public conversations about the Founding Era’s enduring ideas and themes and how they continue to influence our lives today. For more information about Revisiting the Founding Era and participating libraries, visit www.foundingera.org.