Carol Berkin: “The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties”

The William V. Coombs American History Lecture Carol Berkin is Presidential Professor of History at Baruch College and emerita professor at the Graduate Center of CUNY where she taught early American and women's history. In 1789, the nation faced a great divide around a question still unanswered today: should broad power and authority reside in the federal government or should it reside in state governments? The truth of how and why James Madison championed the Bill of Rights, the debates it caused in the Congress, and its ultimate success is more engrossing than any of the myths that shroud our national beginnings. Presented in partnership with Hamilton High School.