PLEASE NOTE this is a 2013 reading list—the precise content may change in future years.
Term 1, Week 1
Topic: INTRODUCTION: POLITICAL CULTURE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA
Questions for discussion:

What are the main characteristics of American political culture?

What are the main sources of that political culture?

What, if anything, is exceptional about theUnited States, its political system, and its political
culture?

How convincing is Huntington’s conception of the “American Creed”?

What do “liberal” and “conservative” mean in the United States?

What are the main approaches to the study of US politics?
Core Reading

R. McKeever and P. Davies, Politics USA, 3rd Edition Chapter 1

D. McKay, American Politics and Society 8th Edition Chapters 1& 2

R. J. La Raja, New Directions in American Politics, Introduction

S. Huntington, American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony Chapter 2 pp. 13-30

M. Foley, American Credo: The Place of Ideas in American Politics [Electronic resource] –
read Part I Approaches: Introduction, plus as much of the rest of the book as you can.

B. Shafer, ‘ “Exceptionalism” in American Politics?’ PS: Political Science & Politics, Vol. 22, No.
3 (September 1989) pp. 588-594.
Supplementary Reading
On American political tradition and culture see:
General texts:

G. Peele et al, Developments in American Politics 6, “Introduction” and Chapter 2 “A New
Political Agenda?” by Gillian Peele

N. Bowles, Government and Politics of the United States, 2nd Edition, Chapter 1 (pp. 1-9)

P.J. Davies, ed., Representing and Imagining America

R. Duncan & J. Goddard, Contemporary America

R. Singh, ed., Governing America, Introduction and Chapters 1-2
Classic studies:

G. Almond, ‘The Study of Political Culture’, A Discipline Divided

G. Almond and S. Verba, The Civic Culture Revisited

E. Black and M. Black, Politics and Society in the South

D. Boorstin, The Genius of American Politics

H. Commager, Majority Rule and Minority Rights

R. Dahl, Democracy, Liberty and Equality

M. Davis, Prisoners of the American Dream: Politics and Economy in the History of the US
Working Class

A. de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

M. Foley, American Political Ideas

R. Hanson, The Democratic Imagination in America

L. Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America

R. Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition

G. Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence
Recent and Contemporary studies:

V. B. Beasley, You, The People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric

F. Bechhofer and D. McCrone, eds, National Identity, Nationalism and Constitutional
Change [Electronic Resource]

E. Dionne, Why Americans Hate Politics

E. Foner, The Story of American Freedom

J. Gunnell, Imagining the American Polity

R.T. Hughes, Myths America Lives By

H. McClosky and J. Zaller, The American Ethos Especially Chapters 2 & 3.

J.Nye et al, Why People Don’t Trust Government

K. Orren and S. Skowronek, The Search for American Political Development

R. Putnam, Bowling Alone: the collapse and revival of American community

R. Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6,
No. 1 (1995)

M. Raskin, Liberalism: The Genius of American Ideals

R. Smith, Civic Ideals: conflicting visions of citizenship in U.S. history
On recent debates concerning American ideology and conservatism in particular see:

C. W. Dunn & J. D. Woodard, The Conservative Tradition in America

J. R. Flynn, Where Have All the Liberals Gone?: Race, Class, and Ideals in America

T. Frank, What’s the Matter with America?: the resistible rise of the American right

M Friedman, The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish intellectuals and the shaping of public
policy

A. Lieven, America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism

J. Micklethwait & A. Wooldridge, The Right Nation: Why America is Different

I. Morgan & P. Davies, eds, Right On?: Political Change and Continuity in George W. Bush’s
America

G. H. Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America since 1945 (2006 edition)

M. J. Thompson, Confronting the New Conservatism: The Rise of the Right in America

J. White, The Values Divide: American politics and culture in transition
On American exceptionalism see:

P.J. Davies, ed., Representing and Imagining America

J. P. Greene, The Intellectual Construction of America: exceptionalism and identity from 1492
to 1800

A. Lieven, America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism

S. M. Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword

S. M. Lipset, The First New Nation: the United States in historical and comparative
perspective

C. Lockhart, The Roots of American Exceptionalism: history, institutions and culture

D. Madsen, American Exceptionalism

T. B. McCrisken, American Exceptionalism and the Legacy of Vietnam: US foreign policy since
1974

T. B. McCrisken, “George W. Bush, American Exceptionalism and the Iraq War” in

D. Ryan & P. Kiely, eds, America and Iraq: Policy-making, Intervention and Regional Politics,
Chapter 11

B. Shafer, Is America Different?: a new look at American exceptionalism

B. A. Shain, The Myth of American Individualism

G. Wilson, Only in America
On the part played by socialism see:

I. Howe, Socialism and America

G. Lewy, The Cause That Failed: Communism in American Life

S.M. Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword, Chapter 3

S. M. Lipset and G. Marks, It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States

W. Sombart, Why is there no socialism in the United States?