May - Introduction: Several Broad Themes
K&L: Thurgood Marshall, “The Constitution’s Bicentennial”
Michael Walzer, from What Does It Mean to Be an “American”?
Allan Bloom, from The Closing of the American Mind
Pat Robertson, “A Portrait of America”
Canvas: Daniel Levin, “Federalists in the Attic”
Donald Lutz, “What is American Political Thought?”
Liberty and the American State
Jan–Grace, Liberty and Intolerance – Study Sheet
John Winthrop, Defence of an Order of Court, 17; “Little Speech on Liberty,” 20.
Roger Williams, “The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution,” 25
Jonathan Mayhew, A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission, 43
The Mayflower Compact, 73
Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company, 76
Canvas: Locke, from The Second Treatise on Government
Jan. - The Revolution – Study Sheet
New Hampshire Assembly on Choosing a Speaker, 86
James Otis, “The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved,” 100
Samuel Adams, “The Rights of the Colonists,” 108
Jonathan Boucher, On Civil Liberty, Passive Obedience, and Non-Resistance, 113
John Adams, Novanglus, 119
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 131; The American Crisis, 149
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, 151
Jan. 2 - Constitutional Debate and Ratification – Study Sheet
Alexander Hamilton, Letter to James Duane, 163
The Constitution of the United States, 170
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, The Federalist Papers, 191-244
Thomas Jefferson, To James Madison, 244; To David Humphreys, 247
Richard Henry Lee, Letters from the Federal Farmer, 248
Robert Yates, Essays of Brutus, 256
James Madison, Address to the House of Representatives on Amending the
Constitution, 274
The Bill of Rights, 281
Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, 337; Notes on the
State of Virginia, 344-347; To a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, 365
Canvas: Lienesch, “The Constitutional Tradition”
First Paper
Assigned February 2
Due February 9
Feb. 7, 9 - The Federal Period: An Unresolved Debate - Study Sheet
Alexander Hamilton, First Report on the Public Credit, 297; Opinion on the
Constitutionality of the Bank, 304; Report on Manufactures, 309
George Washington, Farewell Address, 319
John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland, 327
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 342-344, 347-8; Opinion on the
Constitutionality of the Bank, 348; First Inaugural Address, 352; To
Reverend James Madison, 358, To Colonel Edward Carrington, 359; To William
S. Smith, 360; To Elbridge Gerry, 364; To Samuel Kercheval, 372
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, 375
James Madison, Report to the Virginia General Assembly, 381
Feb. 14, 16 - Jacksonian America - Study Sheet
Henry Clay, Speech on the Tariff, 389
John Quincy Adams, First Annual Message to Congress, 392
Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress, 419; Veto of Maysville
Road Bill, 424; Bank Veto Message, 427
Daniel Webster, Speech on Jackson’s Veto of the United States Bank Bill, 443
March 8, 20, 22, 27 - Free Labor, Slavery and Union - Study Sheet
Orestes Brownson, “The Laboring Classes,” 456
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 546
William Lloyd Garrison, Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery
Society, 559
Frederick Douglass, Lectures on Slavery, 591; “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of
July?,” 594
Harriet Beecher, Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, 598
John C. Calhoun, Speech on the Reception of Abolition Petitions, 604;
George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All!, or, Slaves Without Masters, 636
James Henry Hammond, “Mud Sill” Speech, 647
Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Peoria, Illinois, 649; Speech on the Dred Scott
Decision; Cooper Union Address, 666; New Haven Address, 667; First
Inaugural Address, 668; Address to Congress, 676; Gettysburg Address,
683; Second Inaugural Address, 684
March 29, April 3, 5 - The Gilded Age and Populism - Study Sheet
William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, 703
Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth,” 730
Henry Demarest Lloyd, Wealth Against Commonwealth, 764
Lester Ward, Sociocracy, 773
James Baird Weaver, “A Call to Action,” 791
William Jennings Bryan, The “Cross of Gold” Speech, 809
April 10, 12, 15 - Pragmatism and Progressivism
William James, “Pragmatism: A New Name for Old Ways of Thinking,”1024
John Dewey, “The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy,” 1030; The Public and Its
Problems, 1036; Liberalism and Social Action, 1156
Walter Lippman, from Public Opinion, 1058
Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life, 1065
Theodore Roosevelt, “The New Nationalism,” 1086
Louis Brandeis, “The Living Law,” 1095; “Industrial Absolutism & Democracy,”
1099
Woodrow Wilson, "The New Freedom," 1102
April 15, 17, 24 - The Great Depression and the New Deal
Herbert Hoover, “American Individualism,” “Rugged Individualism,” “The
Challenge to Liberty,” “The Fifth Freedom,” 1133-1146
Charles A. Beard, “The Myth of Rugged American Individualism,” 1147
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Commonwealth Club Speech,” “First Inaugural
Address,” “Annual Message to Congress,” “The Four Freedoms,” “A Second Bill of
Rights,” 1170-1190
Walter Lippman, “Planning in an Economy of Abundance,” 1206
May 31- Defining Americanism: Anticommunism and the 1960s
Reinhold Niebuhr, from The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness
Arthur M. Schlessinger, Jr. “What Is Loyalty? A Difficult Question”
Whittaker Chambers, from Witness
Louis Hartz, “The Concept of a Liberal Society”
C. Wright Mills, from The Power Elite, "Letter to the New Left"
Daniel Bell, "The End of Ideology in the West"
Mario Savio, “An End to History”
Students for a Democratic Society, “The Port Huron Statement”
June 2- Race: The American Dilemma
W.E.B. DuBois, "Our Spiritual Strivings"
Booker T. Washington, “Atlanta Exposition Address”
Gunnar Myrdal, Selection from An American Dilemma
Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Power of Nonviolence,” “Letter from Birmingham
Jail, “I Have a Dream”
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, “Statement of Purpose”
Malcolm X, Selection from "The Ballot or the Bullet"
Stokely Carmichael, “Toward Black Liberation”
Cornel West, from Race Matters
Web: Barack Obama, “Speech on Race”
June 7 - A Woman's Place
Betty Friedan, Selection from The Feminine Mystique
National Organization for Women, Bill of Rights
Redstockings Manifesto (1969)
Kate Millett, Sexual Politics
Phyllis Schlafly, excerpt from The Power of the Positive Woman
Reserve: Gloria Steinem, “If Men Could Menstruate”
Web: Jane Addams, Why Women Should Vote,
Web: Margaret Sanger, excerpt from Woman and the New Race.
June 9 - Conservatism: The Old Right
William F. Buckley, from God and Man at Yale
Young Americans for Freedom, The Sharon Statement
Barry Goldwater, from The Conscience of a Conservative
Reserve: Russell Kirk, “Prescription, Authority, and Ordered Freedom”
Francis Schaeffer, “The Abolition of Truth and Morality”
John Whitehead, “Adam Redux”
Web: Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address
June 14 - Unconventional Conservatives: Neo-Cons and Libertarians
Milton Freedman, from Free to Choose
Irving Kristol, “Capitalism, Socialism, and Nihilism
Robert Nozick, from Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Reserve: Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “Dumbing Down Deviancy”
Norman Podhoretz, “Neoconservatism: A Eulogy”
June 16- Contemporary American Liberalism, Communitarianism, Libertarianism
John Rawls, from A Theory of Justice
Michael J. Sandel, “The Public Philosophy of Contemporary Liberalism”
Amitai Etzioni, “Communitarianism and the Moral Dimension”
Web: Lyndon Baines Johnson, “The Great Society”
Robert F. Kennedy, Remarks at the University of Kansas
William J. Clinton, “The Job of Ending Discrimination in This Country Is Not
Over”
- Culture and Politics in Modern America
Community and Self in American Political Thought
John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”, 11
Benjamin Franklin, “The Way to Wealth,” 53; “The Art of Virtue,” 60;
“Information for ThoseWho Would Remove to America,” 66
George Bancroft, “The Office of the People in Art, Government …,” 451
James Fennimore Cooper, The American Democrat, 465
Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas, 497
Emerson
Thoreau
Thorstein Veblen, from The Theory of the Leisure Class
Jerry Rubin, A Yippie Manifesto
Bill McKibben, The End of Nature
Richard Rorty, “A Cultural Left”
Canvas: Anne Norton, “Republic of Signs”
Daniel Bell, from The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism
Jean Baudrilliard, from America