This course examines what one scholar has called "the story of American freedom." We will explore the different ways that the concept of freedom has been defined and contested by different people or groups in the American past and will attempt to improve our understanding of the political ideas and ideologies that have shaped the way Americans have understood themselves and their national enterprise. In exploring these topics, we will gain a better understanding of whether the ideological assumptions that continue to shape American political culture actually make the United States exceptional.