# Event Details - **Event Name**: The Declaration’s Force - 4 week series - **Event Start and End Date**: Wed, 24 Jun, 2026 at 06:30 pm – Wed, 15 Jul, 2026 at 08:30 pm - **Event Description**: A short summer school course to celebrate 250 Years since the adoption of The Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776About this EventLed by rengade Americophile English Cultural Historian Nicholas FriendCourse will take place four consecutive weeks.Wednesday, June 24th, July 1st, July 8th and July 15th, 2026 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.Admission is by donation and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. We recommend a donation of $35 per person, per session or $100 for all 4 sessions. When purchasing your ticket there is a limit of only one per course - you may bring more than 1 person. Please consider this when choosing your donation amount.Never before 1776 had such an incendiary political declaration been made. Never since has a political document inspired such a sea-change in the structure of government, or such creative originality in social and cultural expression. Shock waves from the American Revolution that ensued were felt not only in American life and politics, but across the world from France to Haiti as impetus for change.This summer on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is the perfect time to re-examine its sources, the complex implications of its eloquent language, and its vast influence on cultural and social expression. In art and literature influences from Britain and Europe were complemented by uniquely American and African-American voices in literature, art and architecture.Wednesday June 24 - The Roots of American Self-DeterminationThe Declaration of Independence stands on the shoulders of earlier texts. We look at the arguments of John Locke’s ‘Two Treatises of Government’ John Dickinson’s ‘Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer’, and Tom Paine’s ‘Common Sense’, which shifted the colonial mindset from reconciliation with the British Crown towards an independent, democratic republic.Wednesday July 1 - Fine WordsThe concise and poetic text of the Declaration of Independence and its influence on the Constitution will be examined. We ask whether its assertion that ‘all men are created equal’ and that there are certain ‘unalienable rights’ such as ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’, were, or are, ‘self-evident’.Wednesday July 8 - Literature For a New NationThe American Renaissance writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau took the Declaration’s focus on individual liberty and applied it to the mind and the soul. James Fenimore Cooper explored the moral ambiguities of the Revolution and Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Walt Whitman and Nathaniel Hawthorne forged a distinctly American cultural identity.Wednesday July 15 - Art, and Architecture for A New NationThe Declaration of Independence inspired the patriotic historical realism of John Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence as well as new acknowledgements of the power of virgin American landscape in the work of Thomas Cole, the African-American Robert Duncanson and other members of the Hudson River School. Architects turned to the language of the ancient Greeks to express the republic’s new-found democracy.We hope you will join us for a unique perspective from a renegade Americaphile English cultural historian tempered by a Berkeley- American life partner.There is a suggested donation of $35 per session or $100 for all 4 sessions toward expenses and refreshments. It is payable in advance through Eventbrite. - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/berkeley/the-declarations-force-4-week-series/100001988839132383 - **Event Categories**: art, literary-art, nonprofit, workshops - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 - **Event Highlights**: - Duration: 2 hours - Location: The Hillside Club - Languages: English ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: Berkeley - **state**: CA - **country**: United States - **location**: The Hillside Club - **lat**: 37.8787842 - **long**: -122.2649013 - **full address**: The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley, United States ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: The Declaration’s Force - 4 week series - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events1/banners/36f876538a577fc2baed6ad390c059ccdf118dc998eb98c6e84dc0e1f16a5f1e-rimg-w1200-h600-dca9a78c-gmir.jpg?v=1780065122 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is The Declaration s Force - 4 week series being held? - **A:** The Declaration s Force - 4 week series takes place on Wed, 24 Jun, 2026 at 06:30 pm to Wed, 15 Jul, 2026 at 08:30 pm at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley, United States. - **Q**: Who is organizing The Declaration s Force - 4 week series? - **A:** The Declaration s Force - 4 week series is organized by Berkeley Hillside Club. - **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me? - **A:** The Declaration s Force - 4 week series is ideal for art lovers, collectors, creatives, and anyone inspired by visual arts, installations, and exhibitions. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Berkeley, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. 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