Dornsife Dialogues: America at 250: What History Can Teach Us About Our Future

Event details Date: Thursday, September 10, 2026 Time: 12:00 PM Location: Online Type: Lecture / Talk / Workshop Department: Dornsife Alumni Audience: Alumni About this event As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, what can our history teach us about the nation we are becoming? Join USC Dornsife Dean James Bullock for a lively conversation with historians Peter Mancall and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal. Looking beyond familiar founding stories, they’ll explore how America took shape and how ideas about freedom, citizenship and democracy have evolved. What has changed? Which debates remain unresolved? And how can history help us navigate the challenges ahead? Participants: Peter Mancall Distinguished Professor of History, Anthropology and Economics Author of Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000–1680 Nathan Perl-Rosenthal Professor of History, French and Italian, and Law Author of The Long Revolution: Creating a United States After 1776 James Bullock Dean, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Official event details: https://calendar.usc.edu/event/dornsife-dialogues-america-at-250-what-history-can-teach-us-about-our-future