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A scientific, literary, theological, political, and moral education is necessary for personal happiness and to perpetuate the blessings of civil and religious liberty. Hillsdale College furnishes these beautiful courses for free to all who wish to learn and to enjoy those blessings.

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Our Newest Course

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American Paintings

Great artists perceive something that is difficult to capture and portray it with a beauty that makes it easier for us to grasp. These American paintings present the American character and make us proud to be Americans. 

This course explores inspiring portraits of statesmen, cherished images of common citizens, breathtaking landscapes of the American countryside, the hidden beauty of America’s city streets, and harrowing but fortifying glimpses of battle. American art is characterized by honesty. These artists attempt to balance a faithful replica of reality with a depiction of the ideal we seek. The color, light, and movement captured in brushstrokes on canvas provide a unique glimpse of the American character. 

Latest Articles

Franz Haydn’s Sublime Creation image

Franz Haydn’s Sublime Creation

October 16, 2025

It may seem like an impossibility to depict vividly an occasion as colossal as the creation of the universe. The Genesis creation account explains how the God of the universe spoke existence into being. As human beings, it is difficult to wrap our minds around just how cataclysmic the creation may have been. God spoke and light materialized from darkness. You may think of the flipping of a light s...

By Michael Eller

Is the Aeneid “Propaganda”? image

Is the Aeneid “Propaganda”?

October 2, 2025

One conventional reading of Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid, takes this hallmark of Latin literature as bald propaganda for Augustus’ new regime. And there are some significant reasons this critical attitude has found purchase with many readers and observers. For one, the poem was essentially produced in the context of the Augustan political movers and shakers. More specifically, Augustus’ close...

By Andrew Koperski

The Sublime American Landscape image

The Sublime American Landscape

September 18, 2025

Edmund Burke described “the sublime” as an aesthetic experience that overwhelms and astonishes, a feeling of awe and even a kind of delightful terror, often in response to phenomena that are vast, powerful, or beyond our comprehension. The experience of the sublime can, at times, occur strangely alongside experience of the beautiful, which Burke described as the power to inspire love. If we ...

By Veronica Brooks

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