About Course
Starting April 22, 2026, at 8 PM ET
A live course by Professor Richard Bell taking place on Wednesdays, starting on April 22 from 8 pm – 9:30 pm ET. Each session will be recorded and available for registrants.
The Declaration of Independence is a peculiar thing. It’s a literary masterpiece that was written jointly by a committee of fifty people. It’s short and punchy—just 1310 words long—but still somehow daunting and difficult to get to grips with (there’s a reason most of us have never read it in full and can only quote the first third of its second sentence).
And what is it exactly? Is it a birth certificate announcing happy news, or a petition for divorce full of grievance and score-settling, or something else? Is it aimed at the American people, or King George, or someone else? Was it the first-ever declaration of independence, or a cheap imitation of a genre already well established? What did people at the time make of it? What did it change? Why does it matter?
In this two-part program, historian Richard Bell, professor of history at the University of Maryland and a specialist in the American Revolutionary era, takes a deep dive into the fascinating origins, misunderstood purpose, and extraordinary global legacy of the Declaration of Independence.
Course Content
Wednesday, April 22 | 8 PM – 9:30 PM ET
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Lecture and discussion
Wednesday, April 29 | 8 PM – 9:30 PM ET
Wednesday, May 6 | 8 PM – 9:30 PM ET
Wednesday, May 13 | 8 PM – 9:30 PM ET
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