NYU History 101 Workshop
Section: American Intellectual History 1877-Present
Instructor: David Weinfeld
The section of History 101 Workshop “American Intellectual History, 1877-Present,”
will proceed both thematically and chronologically. It will be divided into three
sections: “Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Politics.” The first section, “Pragmatism,” will
deal with on of the major trends in American philosophical thought, as well as its
critics. It will also begin an exploration of what it means to be an intellectual in
America. The second section, “Pluralism,” will investigate different varieties of
diversity in America: racial, ethnic, religious and cultural. The final section,
“Politics,” will analyze the intellectual currents behind major ideological movements
in the United States, including capitalism, individualism, socialism, liberalism,
conservatism and neo-conservatism. There will also be two “interludes,” one on
feminism and another on aesthetics.
Due to time constraints, the course will focus mostly on ideas as they relate to
domestic policy, though occasionally we will explore topics related to foreign policy
and American exceptionalism.
The books students will be required to purchase are:
-David Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition:
Volume II: 1865 to the Present, 6th edition (New York/Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2010).
-Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America, (New York:
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001)
-John Patrick Diggins, The Rise and Fall of the American Left (New York: Norton,
1993)
-David Hollinger, Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism, 10th Anniversary
Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2006)
Most of the primary texts will come from The American Intellectual Tradition.
Occasionally some primary and secondary texts will come from other books, and
those will selections will be available on Blackboard or for free on the Internet.
The course will consist of four short writing assignments in addition to the final
paper.
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The first writing assignment will be a two-page analysis of one of the assigned
primary readings. Students may select whichever reading they like, but it must be
within the first five weeks of the course.
The second writing assignment will be a two-page anaylsis of an unpublished
primary source (letter, journal entry, memo, school assignment/notes). Ideally, the
student will have located the source within an archive. Students will be assigned a
specific week for this assignment, and present their source to class in a short fiveminute presentation. The source should relate to the readings of that week.
The third writing assignment is a four-page essay analyzing, comparing and
contrasting two to five assigned primary readings from the same week.
The fourth assignment will be a four page essay analyzing two to three unpublished
primary sources. Students CANNOT reuse the source from assignment two. The
students will present their findings to class in brief five-minute presentations. The
sources should relate to the students’ final paper.
The weekly readings are listed below. Students are encouraged to read all
introductory materials related to the readings, and to look up information about the
authors and the specific readings to inform their discussion. All readings listed are
essays or selections from books.
Pragmatism: 4 weeks:
Week 1: Darwin’s Impact and Intro to Themes
“Sociology,” William Graham Sumner
“The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy,” John Dewey
“Preface,” to Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand
Week 2: The Basics
“What Pragmatism Means,” William James
“The Path of the Law,” Oliver Wendell Holmes
“The Fixation of Belief,” Charles Peirce
“Pragmatisms,” Louis Menand
Week 3: Pragmatism and Intellectuals: Supporters and Dissenters
“New York After Paris,” William C. Brownell
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“The Genteel Tradition in Philosophy” George Santayana
“The Social Value of the College Bred,” William James
“The Problem of Job,” Josiah Royce
“Anti-Intellectualism in American Life,” Richard Hofstadter
Week 4: Pragmatism in Practice: Spanish American War, WW1
“The Philippine TYangle,” William James
Letters from William James on Dreyfus Affair, Spanish-American War
“Force, Violence and Law,” ; “What American Will Fight For,” John Dewey
“Twilight of the Idols,” Randolphe Bourne
Begin reading Postethnic America by David Hollinger
Week 5: Interlude -Feminism
“The Solitude of Self,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton
“Women and Economics,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“Anarchism,” Emma Goldman
“Feminine Mystique” Betty Friedan
“Red Stockings Manifesto”
“No More Miss America”
“The Dialectic of Sex,” Shulamith Firestone
Pluralism: 4 weeks:
Week 6: Early Black Thought
Finish Postethnic America by David Hollinger
“Speech Before the Atlanta Cotton States,” Booker T. Washington
“The Conservation of the Races,” W.E.B. Du Bois
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“Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” W.E.B. Du Bois
“Talented Tenth,” W.E.B. Du Bois
“On the Leopard’s Spots,” Kelly Miller
“The Political Independence of the Negro,” T. Thomas Fortune
Week 7: Ethnic, Religious and Cultural Pluralism
“The Melting Pot,” Israel Zangwill
“On the Necessity of Social Settlements,” Jane Addams
“Democracy Vs The Melting Pot,” Horace Kallen
“Trans-National America,” Randolphe Bourne
“The New Negro,” Alain Locke
“Pluralisms,” Louis Menand
“Protestant-Catholic-Jew,” Will Herberg
Primary source letters to Horace Kallen
Week 8: Spring Break
Start reading John Patrick Diggins, “Introduction,
Week 9: Civil Rights and Black Power
“Moynihan Report,” Daniel Patrick Moynihan (skim)
“Beyond the Melting Pot,” Daniel Moynihan and Nathan Glazer
“The Ballot or the Bullet,” Malcolm X
“Black Power,” Stokeley Carmichael
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,”; “I Have a Dream,” Martin Luther King
“Conclusion” to Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand
Week 10: Interlude - Aesthetics
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“The Dynamo and the Virgin,” Henry Adams
“Exile’s Return,” Malcolm Cowley
“Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” Clement Greenberg
“The Experimental Life,” Randolph Bourne
“America’s Coming of Age,” Van Wyck Brooks
“Lyrical Left,” by John Patrick Diggins
Politics: 3 Weeks
Week 11. Capitalism and Individualism
“Gospel of Wealth,”; “The Triumph of America,” Andrew Carnegie
“The Theory of Leisure Class,” Thorstein Veblen
“Democracy and Freedom” Milton Friedman
“The Stages of Economic Growth,” W.W. Rostow
“The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” Frederick Jackson Turner
Week 12: Socialism
“Is Socialism Practical?” Daniel DeLeon
“The Paradox of Capitalist Growth,” Henry George
“Communism without Dogmas,” Sidney Hook
“Why there is no Socialism in the United States,” Werner Sombart
“New York in the Thirties,” Irving Howe
“Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era,” Lincoln Steffens
“How I Became a Socialist,”; “Socialism and the Working Class,” ; “Capitalism and
Socialism,” Eugene Debs
“The Old Left” John Patrick Diggins
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Week 13: Liberalism and the New Left
“A Cup of Coffee and a Seat,” Michael Walzer
“The End of Ideology in the West,” Daniel Bell
“Port Huron Statement,” Tom Hayden
“One Dimensional Man,” Herbert Marcuse
“New Left,” John Patrick Diggins
Week 14: Conservatism and Neoconservatism
“The Idea of Conservatism,” Russell Kirk
“My Negro Problem—And Ours,” Norman Podhoretz
“The Adversary Culture of Intellectuals,” Irving Kristol
“On Being Deradicalized” Nathan Glazer
Begin reading “Anomaly” by John Patrick Diggins
Week 15: Wrap-Up: What It All Means Today
Finish “Anomaly,” John Patrick Diggins
“Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars,” Henry Louis Gates Jr.
“The End of History,” Francis Fukuyama
“The Clash of Civilizations,” Samuel Huntington
“Karl’s New Manifesto,” David Brooks
“NAACP Speech at 50th Anniverary of Brown v. Board,” Bill Cosby,
Letters to Reverand Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama
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