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American Political Thought >> Content Detail



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Readings

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Required Texts

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Dover. (Download a version from Project Gutenberg.)

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Dover. (Download a version from Project Gutenberg.)

Amazon logo Jefferson, Thomas. The Portable Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Merrill D. Peterson. New York, NY: Penguin, 1977. ISBN: 9780140150803.

Amazon logo Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Portable Emerson. Edited by Malcolm Cowley. New York, NY: Penguin, 1981. ISBN: 9780140150940.

Amazon logo Sumner, W. G. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other? Caldwell, ID: Caxton, 2003. ISBN: 9780870041662.

Amazon logo DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York, NY: Dover, 1994. ISBN: 9780486280417.

Amazon logo Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780226264219. 


Reading Assignments by Lecture Session


LEC #TOPICSREADINGS
1Introduction

2Interpreting American Political ThoughtRequired Readings

Amazon logo Hartz, Louis. The Liberal Tradition in America. New York, NY: Harvest Books, 1991, pp. 3-32. ISBN: 9780156512695.

Amazon logo Sandel, Michael. Democracy's Discontent. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 3-54 and 274-315. ISBN: 9780674197442.

Smith, Rogers. "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America." American Political Science Review 87, 3 (1993): 549-566.

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Smith, Rogers. Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780300069891.

Amazon logo Hofstader, Richard. The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It. New York, NY: Vintage, 1989. ISBN: 9780679723158.
3The Protestant BackgroundRequired Readings

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. (Written 1771-1790, First Pub. 1868.)

Amazon logo Lawrence, D. H. "Benjamin Franklin." In Studies in Classic American Literature. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 20-31. ISBN: 9780521550161.

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Puritans in America. Edited by Alan Heimert and Andreq Delbanco. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985. ISBN: 9780674740655.

Amazon logo Wood, Gordon. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York, NY: Vintage, 1993, pp. 3-94. ISBN: 9780679736882.

Amazon logo Morgan, Edmund. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780300095326.
4Revolutionary America

Required Readings

Paine, Thomas. "Common Sense." 1776.

Jefferson, Thomas. "Declaration of Independence." In Portable Thomas Jefferson, 1776, pp. 235-41.

Abigail, and John Adams. "Remember the Ladies." 1776. (View the text and original manuscript of the letter from the Massachusetts Historical Society.)

Douglass, Frederick. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" 1852.

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Bailyn, Bernard. Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Belknam Press of Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780674443020. (original published in 1967)

Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. pp. 1-118. (originally published by Norton in 1969)

Pocock, J. G. A. The Machiavellian Moment. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. pp. 462-552. (originally published in 1975)

Rodgers, Daniel. "Republicanism: The Career of a Concept." Journal of American History 79 (June 1992).

5Debating the ConstitutionRequired Readings

Publius. The Federalist. Pp. 1, 2, 6, 8-11, 14, 35, 37-39, 46-52, 54, 62, 63, 70, 71, 78 and 81 (1787-88). (Download from Project Gutenberg.)

Dissent of the Minority of the Pennsylvania Convention. (Dec 18, 1787) (available online at Anti-Federalist Papers).

Diamond, Martin. "Democracy and the Federalist: A Reconsideration of the Framers' Intent." American Political Science Review 53, 1 (March 1959): 52-68.

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Wood, Gordon. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1972. ISBN: 9780393006445. pp. 391-615.

Amazon logo Storing, Herbert. What the Anti-Federalists Were For. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981. ISBN: 9780226775746.

Amazon logo Rakove, Jack. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution. New York, NY: A.A. Knopf, 1996. ISBN: 9780394578583.
6Jeffersonian Republicans v. Hamiltonian Federalists, with Madison in the Pivot

Required Readings

Hamilton, Alexander. "Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank," and "Report on Manufactures." In Alexander Hamilton: Writings (Library of America, 2001). 1791, pp. 613-646 and 647-696.

Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia. 1787, pp. 92-103, 122-128, 153-199, 208-217 and 224-229.

———. "Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank." In  Portable Thomas Jefferson. 1791, pp. 261-67.

———. "First Inaugural Address." In Portable Thomas Jefferson. March 4, 1801, pp. 290-95.

———. "Letter to Francis Hopkinson." In Portable Thomas Jefferson. 1789, pp. 435-37.

———. "Letter to Benjamin Austin." In Portable Thomas Jefferson. 1816, pp. 547-550.

Alexander Hamilton on the Web (see this site for links to many of the writings noted above.) 

Madison, James. "Property." pp. 243-46. (View text at The Founders' Constitution.)

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo McCoy, Drew. The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America. Chapel Hill, NY: University of North Carolina, 1996. ISBN: 9780807846162.

Amazon logo Dawson, Matthew. Partisanship and the Birth of America's Second Party 1796-1800: "Stop the Wheels of Government." Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780313310461.

Amazon logo Appleby, Joyce. Capitalism and a New Social Order. New York, NY: New York University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780814705810.

7IndividualismRequired Readings

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Chapter 1 in Nature. 1836. (Download from Project Gutenberg.)

———. "The American Scholar." In Portable Emerson. 1837. (View text on The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.)

———. "Self-Reliance." In Portable Emerson. 1841. (Download from Project Gutenberg.)

———. "Politics." In Portable Emerson. 1844. (Download from Project Gutenberg.)

———. "Napoleon; Or, the Man of the World." In Portable Emerson. 1850. (View text on The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.)

———. "The Fugitive Slave Law." In Portable Emerson. 1854.

Thoreau, Henry David. "Civil Disobedience," "Economy," "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," "Solitude," and "Higher Laws." In Walden. 1845. (View text and additional writings of Thoreau on The Thoreau Reader.)

"Conclusion." In Walden. 1845.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. "The Solitude of Self." 1892. (View text on PBS site: see Historic Documents section.)

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Kateb, George. The Inner Ocean: Individualism and Democratic Culture. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780801480140.
8Racism, Nativism, and Sexism in Antebellum America

Mid-Term Paper Due in Class
Required Readings

Calhoun, John C. Disquisition on Government. Excerpts, 1853. (Download from The Constitution Society.)

Fitzhugh, George. Sociology for the South. 1854, pp. 268-76.

Nott, Josiah C., and George R. Gliddon. eds. Types of Mankind. 1855, pp. 49-87. (View text on the Library of Congress.)

Morse, Samuel F. B. "Imminent Dangers to Free Institutions." pp. ii-29.

Grimke, Angelina E. Letters to Catherine E. Beecher. 1838, pp. 103-121. (View text on Sunshine for Women.)

Beecher, Catherine B. True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women. 1851, pp. 24-60 and 224-32.

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Faust, Drew. The Ideology of Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Antebellum South 1830-1860. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1981. ISBN: 9780807108925.

Amazon logo Tise, Larry. Proslavery: A History of the Defense of Slavery in America 1701-1840. Athens, NY: University of Georgia Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780820309279.
9A New Birth of Freedom?Required Readings

Lincoln, Abraham. Young Men's Lyceum Address. 1838.

———. "First Inaugural Address." In Lincoln: Selected Speeches and Writings. 1861.

———. "Address on Colonization." In Lincoln: Selected Speeches and Writings.

———.
"Second Inaugural Address." In Lincoln: Selected Speeches and Writings. 1865

———. "Speech on Reconstruction." 1865. In Lincoln: Selected Speeches and Writings.

Download the complete writings of Abraham Lincoln from Project Gutenberg.

Amazon logo Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877. New York, NY: Perennial, 2002, pp. 18-34, 142-75, and 228-80. ISBN: 9780060937164.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. "Gerritt Smith on Petitions." 1869.

Myra Bradwell v. State of Illinois, 83 U.S. 130 (1872): Excerpt. (View full text of decision on FindLaw.)

U.S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876). (View full text of decision on FindLaw.)

Suggested Readings

Hofstadter. The American Political Tradition. pp. 118-74.

Amazon logo McPherson, James. Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780195055429.

Smith, Rogers. Civic Ideals. pp. 197-346.

Amazon logo Donald, David Herbert. Lincoln. New York, NY: Touchstone, 1996. ISBN: 9780684825359.
10The New Inegalitarians, or The Descent of ManRequired Readings

Sumner, William Graham. What Social Classes Owe to Each Other. 1883, pp. 1-24, 51-62, 107-131.

Strong, Josiah. Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis. 1885, pp. 30-59, 84-112 and 159-80.

Miller, John. "Chinese Exclusion." In Congressional Record : Senate. Feb 28, 1882, pp. 1483-1487; Jan 25, 1887: pp. 980-984; March 16, 1896: pp. 2817-2820; and Jan 9, 1900: pp. 704-712.

Grady, Henry W. "The Race Problem." 1889, pp. 138-55.

Suggested Reading

Amazon logo Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780807055038. (original published in 1944)
11The Death of Freedom?Required Reading

DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk.

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Reed, Adolph. W. E. B. DuBois and American Political Thought: Fabianism and the Color Line. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780195051742.

Amazon logo Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. DuBois: Biography of a Race 1848-1919. New York, NY: H. Holt, 1994. ASIN: B000OKPKJM.
12The Politics of Inclusion and the Politics of DifferenceRequired Readings

Kennedy, John F. "Inaugural Address." 1961. (Inaugural Address President John F. Kennedy)

King, Martin Luther Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." 1963.

X, Malcolm. "The Ballot or the Bullet." 1965.

Goldwater, Barry. "Acceptance Speech." 1964. (Goldwater's 1964 Acceptance Speech)

Johnson, Lyndon. "Commencement Address at Howard University: 'To Fulfill These Rights'." 1965. (Commencement Address at Howard University:"To Fulfill These Rights") and
"State of the Union Address." (Aka 'War on Poverty' speech.) 1964. (Annual Message to the Congress on the state of the Union.)

N.O.W. "Bill of Rights." 1967.

Amazon logo Williams, Patricia. The Alchemy of Race and Rights. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press, 1992, pp. 44-79. ISBN: 9780674014718.

Pollitt, Katha. "Are Women Morally Superior to Men?" The Nation. Sept/Oct (1992): 101-109.
13Markets, Morals, and America Abroad

Required Readings

Friedman, Milton. Capitalism and Freedom. 1962, Introduction, chapters 1, 2, 7, 10, and Conclusion.

Fukuyama, Francis. "The End of History?" In The National Interest. Summer (1989): 3-18.

———. "Statement of Principles." In Project for the New American Century. June 3, 1997. (Project for the New American Century)

Gholz, Eugene, Daryl G. Press, and Harvey M. Sapolsky. "Come Home, America: A Strategy of Restraint in the Face of Temptation." In International Security 21, 4 (Spring 1997): 5-17.

"War with Iraq is Not in America's National Interest." Advertisement in the NY Times. September 26, 2002.

Pollack, Kenneth M. "Why Iraq Can't Be Deterred?" New York Times. September 26, 2002.

Dalder, Ivo, and James Lindsay. "It's Hawk vs. Hawk in the Bush Administration." Washington Post, October 27, 2002.

Ikenberry, G. John. "America's Imperial Ambition." Foreign Affairs 81, 5 (Sep-Oct 2002).

Suggested Readings

Amazon logo Kristol, Irving. Two Cheers for Capitalism. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1978. ISBN: 9780465088034.

Amazon logo Steinfels, Peter. The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America's Politics. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1979. ISBN: 9780671226657.

Amazon logo Will, George. Statecraft as Soulcraft. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1983. ISBN: 9780671427337.

Amazon logo Hayek, Friedrich. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780226320618.

Robin, Corey. "The Ex-Cons: Right-Wing Thinkers Go Left." Lingua Franca. January 2001: 24-33.



 








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