Since before the American Revolution, people of means (usually men) have had an outsized influence on their communities. After the Revolution, their influence grew to encompass the entire country and eventually the world. This course will look at how economic movers and shakers accumulated their money, what they did with it, and how their influence lived on long beyond their lifetimes. 

Subject: history 

Robert Schoone-Jongen is a professor of history emeritus at Calvin University who continues to research and teach about the topics of immigration and the American presidency. He has published articles on the history of American immigration, especially Dutch immigration to New Jersey and Minnesota. His most recent courses for CALL include Descent into Darkness: Why Germans Embraced the Nazis; First-Class, Second-Class Steerage: Three Voyages from Rotterdam to Hoboken and Beyond; The American Revolution: Bunker Hill and Beyond; and The 1619 Project.