USA at 250: An Introspective Celebration of the United States after 250 Years – First Edition

Lifelong Learning | Please email (lifelonglearning@laroche.edu) to register.

9000 Babcock Blvd Allison Park, PA 15101 United States
Conference Room A
2/6/2026-3/6/2026
11:00 AM-12:30 PM EST on Fri
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USA at 250: An Introspective Celebration of the United States after 250 Years – First Edition

Lifelong Learning | Please email (lifelonglearning@laroche.edu) to register.

U.S.A. at 250 is a 30-week course focusing on the significant issues, dramatic events, and pivotal figures that have shaped and defined United States history in the nation’s semi-quincentennial year. Structured around a top twenty-five to thirty list (my homage to David Letterman’s top ten list), this course will integrate historical narrative with examples from American literature, art, film, documentaries, and historiography (what historians have concluded and debated). The course will address how historical events, issues, and figures have influenced and created American intellectualism, legends of mythological proportions, and national ideals. The intent of the course is to reflect on the shortcomings of the United States throughout its history but to also offer academic balance by celebrating the achievements and triumphs of a nation as it enters its 250-year anniversary. Engaging visual support for course content and historical narrative will be offered through power point presentations and video documentaries.

First Edition: Influences and Foundations

1. England’s influence on American perceptions of governmental authority and individual rights

2. Benjamin Franklin, the origins of an American middle class and an “industrious” work ethic

3. Rethinking the legacy of the American Frontier: roots of regional alienation from government

4. Whig Ideology: The intellectual and constitutional engine of the American Revolution

5. George Washington and the creation of an American mythological hero

Grimes, Richard
Richard Grimes

Dr. Richard S. Grimes has taught Native American history and early American history for 25 years at West Virginia University and Lifelong Learning Program for West Virginia University, Carnegie-Mellon University, Duquesne University, and LaRoche University. He currently teaches at Penn State University-Beaver. An active researcher and writer, his book The Western Delaware Indian Nation, 1730–1795: Warriors and Diplomats was published by Lehigh University Press, Studies in the Eighteenth Century and the Atlantic World (October 2017).