RALEIGH (October 1, 2025) – In an era where meddlesome legislators and governing boards try to dictate what professors should teach, 11 history professors at UNC-Chapel Hill took a mandate from the UNC System Board of Governors and made lemonade.

After state legislators attempted to require every student to take a course in America’s foundational documents, the Board of Governors took the hint and adopted a requirement last year that every student in the UNC System must complete at least one course exploring the Foundations of American Democracy.

The policy requires students to study six documents: A sampling of the Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, the NC Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Every UNC System student will be required to take a course that covers that content, starting with students who entered this fall.

Some faculty members thought instruction in the basics of American democracy could be a positive reinforcement of civil discourse in an increasingly polarized country. Others resented politicians trying to dictate what professors – the experts in the subject matter – should teach.¹

But the History Department at UNC-Chapel Hill confronted the policy and put together a primary source reader and study guide that was published at lightning speed by UNC Press. The book covers not just the six documents specified in the System’s policy, but 21 documents, including Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.

“The documents have affected who we are as a people and, more important, what we should aspire to,” said Joseph Glatthaar, a retired UNC history professor who helped organize and edit the guide, during a discussion at the State Archives last week where original copies of the NC Constitution were on display.

Each section includes an introduction written by a UNC professor that places the document in its historical context. The editors’ hope is the guide will be used across the UNC System’s 16 campuses, they said.

“Colleges and universities are scrambling to do this,” said Kathleen DuVal, one of the editors.

Contrary to beliefs in some quarters that professors “indoctrinate” students, “We don’t tell students what to think,” DuVal said. “We give them the documents.”

“You, the reader, you interpret it. Here it is,” DuVal said. “It’s you and the document at the end of the day.”

At one point, the discussion focused on pessimism about today’s United States and its future. W. Fitzhugh Brundage, another of the guide’s editors, said the country experienced periods of deep pessimism during the Civil War and the Great Depression as well.

Yet Americans always seem to recover their enthusiasm, Brundage said, especially during periods of economic prosperity.

Lloyd Kramer, a professor emeritus of history at UNC, asked the panel whether students will pay attention to the documents in a world now dominated by social media.

DuVal responded by describing a recent visit she had with middle school students, where they asked smart, enthusiastic questions about American history.

“The more time you spend with young people, the more optimistic you are,” she said.

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¹ https://publicedworks.org/2025/09/historys-role-in-guiding-nc-students/. The political intrusions include the establishment of the School of Civic Life and Leadership at UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as a new law that says K-12 public school teachers must catalog all the books in their classroom and post the list online: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article312366689.html.