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This course addresses America’s persistent, deep divides and the vitality that has allowed it over time to transcend those divides and reshape itself. E Pluribus Unum – Out of many, one – served as the country’s aspirational motto from its inception, yet we are a nation of differences. USA Lab aims to highlight the economic, cultural, social and geographic factors that define the American experience. In this hands-on lab you will contribute to community success through specific projects.

At the same time, your project work will animate the larger ideas we discuss in class, ideas that have informed and shaped this social experiment throughout its history: the idea of a community acting on a shared notion of the common good; the idea of individual liberty as an organizing and defining principle; and the idea that conflicting values can be reconciled. USA Lab projects enable you to anchor these ideas in American communities and see how they are reflected in the experience of people living and working in cities, towns and rural regions across the United States. Through the projects you also have the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives