Course Instructor - Dr. John Wells

 Course Fee - $25.00

No Class on July 8, 2026

Not all elections in American history are of equal weight and impact.  There are a number that quite dramatically signal a change in national historical trajectories.  We will examine those key elections beginning with the election of 1800.  Referred to as "the  Revolution of 1800" by members of the Jeffersonian faction of American politics, the election put Adams and Jefferson against one another for the second time.  We will examine the election of 1828 and the emergence of "one man, one vote."  We will take a close reading of the 1860 election where multiple candidates were defeated by Abraham Lincoln, setting the stage for the Civil War.  The 1896 election between William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley signaled the shift from an earlier agrarian America to the emergence of industrial America.  We will look at the 1936 election that confirmed the popular endorsement of the New Deal and ended the period of GOP dominance since Reconstruction.  The course will then turn to the tumultuous election of 1968 when the "new politics" emerged.  Finally, we will look at conservative realignment in the 1980 election.  Along the way, we will discuss the vast array of fascinating figures who have played a prominent role in American politics.  

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A native of East Tennessee, Dr. Wells is the son of two ministers in the United Methodist Church and served briefly as a minister himself before turning to a career in higher education. He earned his B.A. in History from Carson-Newman University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Wells previously served as Provost and Interim President of Young Harris from 2005 to 2009, during the College’s transition from junior college to senior college. He most recently served as Provost and later President of a fellow Methodist-affiliated institution, Emory & Henry College in Southwest Virginia, from 2017 to 2024 and was appointed as the institution’s first Chancellor upon his retirement in July. 

Dr. Wells’s wife, Dr. Shannon Earle, previously served as a student affairs professional at Young Harris and now serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for University Advancement at the University of North Carolina Asheville. They have two adult children, Garland and Molly.