Seats are available in the following sections of Benjamin Franklin and the American Dream: An Inquiry into Our Founding Values (ICSM-10800)
- Section 12 (CRN 21372): TR 8:00 AM (Smiddy 115)
- Section 13 (CRN 21373): TR 9:25 AM (Smiddy 115)
This Ithaca Seminar in Writing explores the life, career, and legacy of Benjamin Franklin, the most popular of America’s founders and the original American success story.
The youngest son of a poor candle maker, Franklin began his career as a printer and bookseller. By improvising a broad education and capitalizing on a gift for words, he became a successful editor, publisher, entrepreneur, inventor, scientist, legislator, and ambassador.
Franklin's strategies for communicating intelligently and effectively in the academy, the marketplace, and the assembly remain fresh and instructive, and the problems and paradoxes of the intellectual, commercial, and political worlds that formed him still shape our capitalist democracy.
But although his face is printed on the $100 bill, is Franklin's vision of the America Dream now bankrupt? Through reading, writing, and discussion, we will consider different answers.
For more information, please contact Dr. Anthony Di Renzo at direnzo@ithaca.edu.
This course fulfills the ICC ‘Academic Writing’ competency requirement.