How does America begin? With the fertile imagination of the first Europeans who arrived at its shores? With the creation myths of its indigenous communities? With John Winthrop’s utopian vision of a “City on a Hill”? With the Declaration of Independence that severed the ties with the British Empire? Questions of origins and identity sit at the center of this course. Every week we will analyze fictional and non-fictional accounts of America as an idea, from its beginnings up to the early nineteenth century. We will pay attention to the so-called “founding fathers” and, especially, to those silenced by their master narrative of “fatherhood”: women, African slaves, and displaced American Indians. Whereas the course revolves around a specific historical context, we will explore relevant themes and problems to your own experience as a 21st-century student and citizen: cross-cultural encounter, gender inequality, violence, war, colonialism, racism, democracy, capitalism, and labor rights.