PSC 110
American Political Thought
Fall 2013
Doug Steinel
dsteinel@gwu.edu
office: Acad 113
hrs: M&W. 10:30-11:30
Course Description
The objective of this course is to introduce the student to the
varieties of American political thought from the inception of the
Republic to the present time.
We will also analyze the
consequences of these political points of view in terms of
contemporary American issues.
Requirements and Grading
Grades will be determined according to the following scheme:
Mid-term
Final
Individual book review
Periodical reports
25%
50%
10%
15%
The mid-term exam will take place in October, the exact time and
topics covered will be announced at least a week in advance. The
final exam will be comprehensive. Make up exams will not be given
except in extreme circumstances and only at the discretion of the
instructor for reasons generally approved before the day of the
exam.
Each student will be required to review a book chosen from a list
that appears in the topical section of this syllabus. Completion
of the assignment will require reading the book, writing a
critical analysis of it (5 pages and due by the last class), and
presenting your results orally to the class in a short, informal
question and answer format.
Each student will also be required to read one copy every month of
one periodical from the following list: New Republic, National
Review, The Nation, The American Prospect, Weekly Standard,
Reason, Liberty, The American Conservative. From this periodical,
choose a lead article and write a two page critique of it. You
will be doing this assignment three times (one per month) and you
cannot choose the same periodical title more than once. The two
page critiques are due on the last class of Sep, Oct and Nov.
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We will start off class each Monday by discussing the latest items
on the political agenda. In order to participate, you must keep
up with the news.
I would recommend a newspaper, but the
electronic media also have many good sources for the latest
political news.
I do NOT accept papers via email. Please print off hardcopies and
bring them to class on the due date.
Textbooks
The following textbooks will be used
available for purchase in the bookstore:
in
the
course
and
are
Philip Abbott, Political Thought in America.(recommended)
Terence Ball and Richard Dagger, Political Ideologies and the
Democratic Ideal.
Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition.
Topics and Readings
Part One: Origins of American Political Thought
Readings: Abbott, Intro, ch. 1.
Topic 1: Classical Political Thought
Topic 2: The Enlightenment
Part Two: The Founding of the Republic
Readings: Abbott, chs. 2, 3. Hofstadter chs. 1-2.
Topic 3: The American Revolution
Cullen Murphy, Are We Rome? The Fall of the
Empire and the Fate of America
James Flexner, The Young Hamilton
Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the
Declaration of Independence
Bernard Maya, ed. Jefferson Himself: The Personal Nar-
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rative of a Many-Sided American
Conor Cruise O'Brien, The Long Affair: Thomas
Jefferson and the French Revolution
James Flexner, Washington, the Indispenable Man
T.H.Breen, American Insurgents, American Patriots:
The Revolution of the People
David McCullough, John Adams
Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
Topic 4: Two American Constitutions
A. Hamilton, J. Madison and J. Jay,
The Federalist Papers
Robert A. Goldwin, From Parchment to Paper:
How James Madison Used the Bill of Rights
to Save the Constitution
William L. Miller, The Business of May Next:James
Madison and the Founding
Gary Wills, Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and
The National Security State
Richard Brookhiser, James Madison
Anthony Lewis, Freedom of Thought We Hate
Richard Brookhiser, Alexander Hamilton, American
Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer of a
Nation
Richard Brookhiser, What Would the Founders Do?
Marvin Kalb, The Road to War
Part Three: The Consolidation of the Republic
Readings: Abbott, chs. 3-5. Hofstadter, chs. 3-6.
Topic 5: The Formation of the Party System
Richard Hofstadter, The Idea of a Party System:
The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the U.S.,
1780-1840
John Ferling, Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous
Election of 1800
Topic 6: The Civil War as a Grave Constitutional Crisis
Henry Mayer, All of Fire: William Lloyd Garrison
and the Abolotion of Slavery
George Fletcher, Our Secret Constituion: How Lincoln Redefined American Democracy
Michael Lind, What Lincoln Believed: The Values
And Convictions of America’s Greatest President
Garrett Apps, Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amend-
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ment and the
War America
John Stauffer,
Henry Wiencek,
Jefferson and
Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil
The Other Great Emancipator
Master of the Mountain: Thomas
His Slaves
Part Four: The Consequences of Industrialism
Readings: Abbott, chs. 6, 7. Hofstadter, chs. 7-12.
Topic 7: Populism
Lou Dobbs, War on the Middle Class: How the GovErnment, Big Business, and Special Interests
Are Waging War on the American Dream and How
To Fight Back
Michael Kazin, The Populist Persuasion in American
History
Stephan Lesher, George Wallace: American Populist
Patrick Buchanan, The Great Betrayal
David Brooks, Bobos in Paradise:The New Upper Class
And How They Got There
David Lebedoff, The Uncivil War: How a New Elite
Is Destroying Our Democracy
William Kazin, A Godly Hero: The Life of William
Jennings Bryan
Angello Codivilla, The Ruling Class: How They
Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It
David Rothkopf, Superclass: The Global Power Elite
And the World They are Making.
Jon Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the
White House
Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White
America, 1960-2010
Richard D. White, Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long
Topic 8: Progressivism
James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft
and Debs: The Election that Changed the Country
Jeane Bethke Elshtain, Jane Addams And The Dream
Of American Democracy
Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life
John J. Miller, Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved
Football
Richard Zack, Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s
Doomed Quest to Clean Up Vice in Sin-Loving
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New York
Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex
Part Five: Contemporary American Political Thinking
Readings: Ball, chs. 1-4, 8-10.
Topic 9:
The Political Left
Diane Ravitch, The Language Police: How Pressure
Groups Restrict What Students Learn
David Horowitz, Uncivil Wars
Jonathan Rauch, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks
On Free Thought
Eric Alterman, What Liberal Media?
The Truth About Bias and News
Michael Kazin, American Dreamers: How the Left
Changed a Nation
Matthew Scully, Dominion: The Power of Man,the
Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy
Kevin Mattson, When America Was Great: The Fighting
Faith of Postwar Liberalism
Norman Podhoretz, Why Are Jews Liberal
E.J. Dionne, Our Divided Political Heart: The
Battle for The American Idea in an Age of
Discontent
Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, It’s Even Worse
Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional
System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism
David Kuhn, The Neglected Voter:White Men and the
Democratic Decline
Greg Lukianoff, Unlearning Liberty: Campus CensorShip and the American Debate
Charles Kessler, I Am the Change: Barack Obama
And the Crisis of Liberalism
Topic 10: The Political Right
Barry Goldwater Jr., Pure Goldwater
Barry Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative
F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Milton Friedman, Free to Chose
Nicolas Gillespie and Matthew Welch, The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian
Politics Can Fix What’s the Wrong with
America
John Lott Jr., More Guns, Less Crime
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Ann Coulter, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is
Endangering America
Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas?
How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
Patrick Buchanan, Where the Right Went Wrong
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Andrew Breitbart, Righteous Indignation: Excuse
Me While I Save the World
Sam Tanenhouse, The Death of Conservatism
Ryan Sager, The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals,
Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Replican Party
John Stossel, Why Government Fails
Greg Anrig, The Conservatives Have No Clothes:
Why Right-Wing Ideas Keep Failing
Lawrence Solomon,The Deniers: The World Renowned
Scientists Who Stood Against Global Warming
Hysteria, Political Persecution and Fraud
Carl T. Bogus, Buckley: William F. Buckley and
The Rise of American Conservatism
John Fund and Hans von Spakovsky, Whose Counting?
Patrick Buchanan, Suicide of a Superpower
Part Six: Contemporary Factions and the Major Issues
Readings: Abbott, chs. 8, 9.
Topic 11: The Politics of Race
Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma
Stephen and Abigail Thernstrom, America in
Black and White
Ward Connerly, Creating Equal: My Fight Against
Racial Preferences
Nathan McCall, Makes Me Want To Holler
William Bowen, Derek Bok,The Shape of the River:
Long-term Consequences of Considering Race in
College and University Admissions.
Abigail and Stephan Thermstrom, No Excuses:
Closing the Racial Gap in Learning
John McWhorter, Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage
in Black America
John Ogbu, Black Americans Students in an Affluent
Suburb
bell hooks (aka Gloria Watkins) Killing Rage:
Ending Racism
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David Horowitz, Hating Whitey and Other Progressive
Causes
Shelby Steele, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited
About Obama and Why He Can’t Win
Terry Andersen, The Pursuit of Fairness: A History
Of Affirmative Action
J. Christian Adams, Injustice: Exposing the Racial
Agenda of the Obama Justice Department
Thomas Sowell, Intellectuals and Race.
Harry Stein, No Matter What…They’ll Call This
Book Racist
John Hope Franklin, Mirror to America: The AutoBiography of John Hope Franklin
Topic 12: Culture Wars
Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of
Prohibition
Steven Rhoads, Taking Sex Differences Seriously
Harvey Mansfield, Manliness
David and Myra Sakler, Failing at Fairness: How
Our Schools Cheat Girls
Christina Hoff Sommers, The War Against Boys:
How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Men
Paula Kamen, Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual
Revolution
Donna Freitas, The End of Sex.
Suzaanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly, The Flipside
Of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know and
Men Can’t Say
Anna Fels, Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women’s
Changing Lives
Christine Whelan, Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women
Hanna Rosin, The End of Men and the Rise of Women
Topic 13: The Role of the Judiciary
James McGregor Burns, Packing the Court: The Rise
Of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the
Supreme Court.
Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine: Inside the Secret World
Of the Supreme Court
Jan Crawford Greenburg, Supreme Conflict: The
Inside Story of the Struggle for Control
Of the US Supreme Court
Mark Levin, Men in Black: How the Supreme
Court is Destroying America
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William Stuntz, The Collapse of American
Criminal Justice
J. Harvie Wilsonson III, Cosmic Constitutional
Theory: Why Americans Are Losing Their
Inalienable Right to Self-Governance
Cass Sunstein, Radicals in Robes: Why
Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for
America
Topic 14: The Economy and Poverty
David Shipler, The Working Poor: The Invisible
America
Cass R. Sunstein, The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s
Unintended Revolution and Why We Need It More
Than Ever
William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears
Leon Dash, Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family
in Urban America
Elijah Anderson, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City
Michael Tanner, The Poverty of Welfare: Helping
Helping Others in Civil Society
David Stockman, The Great Deformation: The
Corruption of Capitalism in America
Steven Greenhouse, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times
For American Workers
William Bishop, The Big Sort
Larry Bartels, Unequal Democracy: The Political
Economy of the New Guilded Age
Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History
Of the Great Depression
Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday
Machine
Nicholas Eberstadt, A Nation of Takers: America’s
Entitlement Epidemic
William Voegeil, Never Enough: America’s Limitless
Welfare State
Gretchen Morgenson, Reckless Endangerment: How OutSized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to
Economic Armageddon
Arthur C. Brooks, The Battle: How the Fight Between
Free Enerprise and Big Government Will Shape
America’s Future
Tyler Cowen, The Great Stagnation: How America Ate
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All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History
Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better
Sylvester Schieber, The Predictable Surprise: The
Unraveling of the U.S. Retirement System
John B. Taylor, Firsts Principles: Five Keys to
Restoring American Prosperity
Donald Bartlett and James Steele, The Betrayal of
The American Dream
Thomas Coburn, The Debt Bomb: A Bold Plan to Stop
Washington from Bankrupting America
Paul Krugman, End This Depression Now!
Stefan Halper, The Beijing Consensus: How China’s
Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First
Century
Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How
Today’s Divided Society Endangers our Future
Topic 15: The Alienated Middle Class
Louis Uchitelle, The Disposable Americans: Layoffs
And Their Consequences
Robert Frank, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality
Harms the Middle Class
Gary Wills, A Necessary Evil: A History of American
Distrust of Government
Charlotte A. Twight, Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of
Federal Control Over the Lives of Ordinary
Americans
Patrick Carr, Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural
Brain Drain and What It Means For America
Greg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox: How Life
Gets Better While People Feel Worse
Lawrence Kothikoff and Scott Burns, The Coming Generational Storm
Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen, Mad as Hell
James Payne, The Culture of Spending: Why Congress
Lives Beyond Our Means
Topic 16:
America?
Macro
Models
of
the
Political
System--Who
Rules
Alvin Gouldner, The Future of the Intellectuals and
the Rise of the New Class
John Judis, The Paradox of American Democracy:Elites
Special Interests, and the Betrayal of Public Trust
Jonathan Rauch, Demosclerosis: The
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Silent Killer of American Democracy
Ross Douthat, Privilege: Harvard and the Ruling Class
Topic 17: The American Identity
Carol Swain, ed., Debating Immigration
Samuel Huntington, Who are We? The Challenges to
America’s Identity
Steven Greenhouse, The Big Squeeze: Tough Time for
American Workers
Paul Gottfried, Multiculturalism and the Politics
Of Guilt
Byron Dorgan, Take This Job and Ship It: How
Corporate Greed and Brain Dead Politics Are
Selling Out America
Topic 18: Foreign Policy
Timothy Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History
Of the CIA
Michael Scheuer, Imperial Hubris
Eliot Cohen, Supreme Command:Soldiers, Statesmen,
And Leadership in War Time
Walter A. McDougal, Promised Land, Crusader State:
The American Encounter with the World Since 177
Henry Kissinger, Does America Need a Foreign Policy:
Towards a Diplomacy for the 21st Century
Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations
Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences Of American Empire
Niall Ferguson, Colossus: The Price of America’s
Empire
John Yoo, Crisis and Command:The History of Executive
Power from George Washington to George Bush
Robert Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic
Of Suicide Terrorism
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