Rhode Island College
Political Science 201
Development of American Democracy
Fall Session 2011
Instructor:
Office:
Michaela Keegan
Gaige Classroom
Office Hours: Monday 4:30-5 or by appointment
e-mail:
mkeegan@ric.edu
“We hold these truths to be self- evident: that all men and women are
created equal…”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions”
Course Description:
Students will adopt a conceptual approach to understanding the struggle for democratic values
and political institutions from the American Revolution to the present. Documents in America’s
political, social, and economic history are analyzed for their impact on institutions and culture.
Prerequisites:
None.
Structure:
Political Science 201 meets one time per week for a 3 hour class session. Various activities
including lecture, discussion, videos, small group work and student presentations are planned for
each class. Due to the informal and conversational nature of this class, students are expected to
real all assignments as scheduled and prepare comments and questions on readings.
Disability Statement:
If you have any special needs such as learning disabilities or physical impairments that may
interfere with your ability to learn and to succeed in this course, please talk to me and we can
arrange reasonable accommodations.
Student Responsibilities and Evaluation:
Students are expected to come to class every day, on time, prepared and ready to participate and
learn. Students are responsible for all required readings and must participate in class discussion
as a means of demonstrating their understanding of course themes and concepts. There will be a
midterm examination and a final examination. Each will consist of a combination of
identifications, essays and reaction statements. The midterm will constitute 25% of your grade
and the final another 25%. If you miss an exam due to illness or accident, you must provide the
instructor with written documentation; an unexcused absence results in a failing grade. The
remaining percentage of your grade will reflect your performance on three written assignments,
all of which involve a short roundtable discussion. Please note that no make-up exams will be
given or late papers accepted, unless arrangements have been made before the due date.
Course Grade Summary:
Primary Source Essay #1
10%
Midterm Examination
25%
Primary Source Essay #2
10%
Class in America Paper
30%
Final Examination
25%
Required Reading:
Howard
Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (New York: Harper,
2005).
Howard
Zinn and Anthony Arnove, Voices of a People’s History of the United
States (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004)
The New
York Times, Class Matters (New York: Henry Holt and Company,
2005).
Available
online at:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html
Topics and Required Reading Schedule:
Week 1
8/29
Introduction: An opening conversation on political values and concepts; in class activity; go
over syllabus
Week 2
9/5
Labor Day, College Closed
Week 3
9/12
Persons of Mean and Vile Condition. Zinn, Chapter 3
Primary documents: “Three Documents on Slave Revolts”, “Account of the New York Tenant
Riots”
Tyranny is Tyranny, and A Kind of Revolution. Zinn, Chapters 4 and 5
Primary Documents: “Thomas Hutchinson Recounts the Reaction”, “Samuel Drowne’s
Testimony”, “New York Mechanics Declaration of Independence”, “Federalist #10”
Week 4
9/19
The Intimately Oppressed. Zinn, Chapter 6
Primary Documents: “Declaration of Sentiments”, “Ain’t I a Woman”, “The United States of
America v. Susan B. Anthony”
As Long as Grass Grows or Water Runs. Zinn, Chapter 7
Primary Documents: “Two Statements by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perece”, “the End of a
Dream”
Week 5
9/26
We Take Nothing By Conquest. Zinn, Chapter 8
Primary Documents: “Juan Soto, Desertion Handbill”, “Frederick Douglass, Address to the New
England Convention”, “North Star Editorial, The War With Mexico”
Slavery Without Submission. Zinn, Chapter 9
Primary Documents: “David Walker’s Appeal”, “John Brown’s Last Speech”, “Martin Delany’s
Advice to Former Slaves”
Week 6
10/3
The Other Civil War. Zinn, Chapter 10
Primary Documents: “An Eyewitness Account of the Flour Riot in New York”, “Mechanic”,
“Voting by Classes”, “Annals of the Great Strikes in the United States”
Robber Barons and Rebels. Zinn, Chapter 11
Primary Documents: “Henry George, The Crime of Poverty”, “The Omaha Platform”, “Edward
Bellamy, Looking Backward”
Week 7
10/11
The Empire and the People. Zinn, Chapter 12
Primary Documents: “Three Documents on African American Opposition”, “Samuel Clemens,
Comments on the Moro Massacre”
The Socialist Challenge. Zinn, Chapter 13
Primary Documents: “Mother Jones, Agitation: The Greatest Factor for Progress”, “Woody
Guthrie, Ludlow Massacre”, “Joe Hill, My Last Will”
Week 8
10/17
War is the Health of the State. Zinn, Chapter 14
Primary Documents: “Helen Keller, Strike Against War”, “Two Antiwar Speeches by Eugene
Debs”, “Trumbo, Johnny Got his Gun”
Midterm Examination
Week 9
10/24
Self-help in Hard Times. Zinn, Chapter 15
Primary Documents: “Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit”, “Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Speech to the
Court”, “Rose Chernin on Organizing the Unemployed in the Bronx in the 1930s”
A People’s War? Zinn, Chapter 16
Primary Documents: “Yuri Kochiyama, Then Came the War”, “Kurt Vonnegut, SlaughterhouseFive”, “Paul Robeson’s Unread Statement Before the House Committee on Un-American
Activities”
Week 10
10/31
Or Does It Explode? Zinn, Chapter 17
Primary Documents: “Richard Wright, 12 Million Black Voices”, “Malcolm X, Message to the
Grass Roots”, “Martin Luther King, Where do We Go From Here?”
The Impossible Victory: Vietnam. Zinn, Chapter 18
Primary Documents: “Muhammad Ali Speaks Out Against the Vietnam War”, “Tim O’Brien,
The Man I Killed”, “Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets”
Week 11
11/7
Surprises. Zinn, Chapter 19
Primary Documents: “Martin Duberman, Stonewall”, “Wamsutta, Suppressed Speech on the
350th Anniversary…”, “Susan Brownmiller, Abortion is a Woman’s Right”
The Seventies: Under Control? Zinn, Chapter 20
Primary Documents: “Howard Zinn, the Problem is Civil Disobedience”, “Leonard Pelteir on
the Trail of Broken Treaties”, “Noam Chomsky, COINTELPRO”
Week 12
11/14
Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus. Zinn, Chapter 21
Primary Documents: “Marian Wright Edelman, Commencement Address”, “Cesar Chavez,
Address to the Commonwealth”, “Vito Russo, Why we Fight”
The Unreported Resistance. Zinn, Chapter 22
Primary Sources: “Alex Molnar, If my Marine Son is Killed”, “Mike Davis, In LA, Burning All
Illusions”
Begin reading Class Matters
Week 13
11/21
The Coming Revolt of the Guards and the Clinton Presidency. Zinn, Chapters 23 and 24
Primary Documents: “Two Open Letters of Protest to the Clinton Administration”, “Roni
Krouzman, WTO: The Battle in Seattle”, “Walter Mosely, Workin’ on the Chain Gang”,
“Michael Moore, the Presidency”
Continue reading Class Matters
Class Matters book discussion
Week 14
11/28
A Discussion about Class in America
Week 15
12/5
Class Paper Due
Roundtable Discussion: How Class is Lived in America
Final Examination Date and Time TBA