AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT
POLITICAL SCIENCE 317
SPRING 2008
Introduction
1-8 Receive syllabus; get acquainted; brief discussion of the
Hartz thesis
Louis
Hartz, "American Political Thought and the American Revolution,"
American Political Science Review 46 (June 1952):321-342
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution, 74-100
I Three American political traditions
1-10 Explaining and refining Hartz’s thesis: the competitive and
egalitarian liberal sub-cultures
Richard
J. Ellis, American Political Cultures,
3-27
1-15 A Tale of Two Toms: Jefferson and Paine’s liberalism
Richard
Matthews, The Radical Politics of Thomas Jefferson, 1-29
Richard
J. Ellis, "Radical Lockeanism in American Political Culture," Western
Political Quarterly 45(December 1992), 825-850
1-17 class debate: is Paine a competitive or egalitarian liberal?
Thomas
Paine, "Agrarian Justice," 605-623
1-21 MICRO-ESSAY #1 DUE IN CLA
251 BY 4PM
1-21 SPECIAL EVENT Martin
Luther King Jr. Day Teach-in Hansen Center 2 PM
Richard
Braunstein, “American Indian Justice
and the Resolution of Jurisdictional Complexity”
1-22
The Essential Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, 140-143; 147-152; 158-167
Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers, 48-80
John Ferling, Adams v.
1-24 Toward a deliberative republicanism:
The Essential Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, 167-174; 225-231; 268-275
Richard
Matthews, The Radical Politics of Thomas Jefferson, 97-118
1-29 The Anti-Federalists as agrarian republicans: Smith and
Jefferson on the yeomanry
The Essential Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, xvi-xxv; 42-58
Thomas
Jefferson, Notes on the State of
THREE QUESTIONS CLASS
1-31 class debate: Is Jefferson’s yeoman farmer an agrarian or a
commercial republican?
Richard
Matthews, The Radical Politics of Thomas Jefferson, 31-52; 77-95
Joyce Appleby, “The Radical Double Entendre in the
Right to Self-Government,” 304-312
2-4 MICRO-ESSAY #2 DUE IN CLA
251 BY 4PM
C: The ascriptive tradition and its varieties (e.g.,
classist, sexist, racist)
2-5 Why does Toqueville’s liberalism erase feudal but not racial
differences?
Richard
Matthews, The Radical Politics of Thomas Jefferson, 53-75
Alexis
de Tocqueville, Democracy in America,
11-26; 370-397; 583-600
2-7 class debate: do Tocqueville’s ascriptive assumptions trump his
liberal principles?
Alexis
de Tocqueville, Democracy in America,
398-464
2-11 MICRO-ESSAY #3 DUE IN CLA 251 BY 4PM
A: Laborers
in an agrarian republic: laissez faire Democrats and American exceptionalism
2-12 Hartz’s
liberal consensus in Jacksonian America
Louis
Hartz, "The Whig Tradition in Europe and
American Political Science Review 46 (December 1952):989-1001
2-14 The psychic landscape of Democrat and Whig party ideology
John Ashworth, ‘Agrarians
& Aristocrats’, 7-84
2-19 Taking equality seriously: the strange case of Orestes Brownson
John Ashworth, ‘Agrarians
& Aristocrats’, 87-131
THREE QUESTIONS CLASS
2-21 class debate: should
democracy rectify inequalities or must it simply reflect them?
(aka
were Brownson and Skidmore justified in the effort to equalize property?)
Orestes Brownson, “The Laboring Classes,” Social Theories of Jacksonian Democracy, 309-319
Thomas Skidmore, “A Plan for Equalizing Property,” Social Theories, 355-364
2-25 MICRO-ESSAY #4 DUE IN CLA
251 BY 4PM
B: Miners in an industrialist age: the end of
self-help?
John
Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness,
v-xi; 3-32
Paul
Clark, The Miners’ Fight for Democracy, 1-31
2-28 Industrialism comes to Lockean America
Michael
Paul Rogin, The Intellectuals and
McCarthy, 32-58
John
Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness,
33-68
6 PM
Beckman Auditorium,
SPECIAL EVENING PRESENTATION: JOHN SAYLES'
"MATEWAN" (1987)
3-4 Electoral democracy in the coal camps
John
Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness,
125-164
THREE QUESTIONS
CLASS
3-6 class debate: does quiescence make active citizenship (and
“liberal self-help”) obsolete?
John
Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness,
165-201
John
Gaventa, “Citizen Knowledge, Citizen Competence, and Democracy Building,” 49-63
in Citizen Competence and Democratic
Institutions
3-10 MICRO-ESSAY #5 DUE IN CLA
251 BY 4PM
3-11 The Dewey-Lippman debate: Lippmann, the
stereotype, and a new image of democracy
Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion,
1-32; 79-84; 310-314
3-13 The Dewey-Lippmann debate: Dewey,
Ray Ginger, Altgeld’s America,
1-14
John Dewey, The Public and its Problems, 143-184
3-14 to 3-24 SPRING BREAK
C: Female citizens: caught between
republican virtue and the liberal American dream
3-25 Women’s civic standing in the Progressive era
Alice Kessler-Harris, In Pursuit of Equality, 3-15; 19-45
3-27 The paradox of “protective” labor legislation: Muller v. Oregon
Alice Kessler-Harris, Out
to Work, 180-214
Robert D. Johnson, The
Radical Middle Class, 18-28
6 PM
Beckman Auditorium,
SPECIAL EVENING PRESENTATION: “
4-1 The rise and fall of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Jane J. Mansbridge, Why
We Lost the ERA, 1-117
THREE QUESTIONS
CLASS
4-3 class debate: was the ERA a liberal loss or an ascriptive gain?
Jane J. Mansbridge, Why
We Lost the ERA, 149-199
4-7 MICRO-ESSAY #6 DUE IN CLA
251 BY 4PM
D: African Americans: ascriptive citizenship doesn’t
go down without a fight
4-8 Reconstructing American citizenship: two varieties of
liberalism begin the fight
The Essential
Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers, 143-147
4-10 Dubois’ double consciousness
W.E.B.
DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk,
43-78
4-15 Afro-Americans in the twentieth-century: generally left out,
but an opening appears
Doug McAdam, Political
Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, 65-116
4-17 Three models of how social movements work
Doug
McAdam, Political Process and the
Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, 1-64
THREE QUESTIONS
CLASS
4-22 class debate: which political tradition can claim the civil
rights movement?
Doug
McAdam, Political Process and the
Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, 117-229
4-23 MICRO-ESSAY #7 DUE IN CLA
251 BY 4PM
4-24 FINAL EXAM 8:00-10:00 AM
Course requirements
The following texts, required
of all students, are available at the IWU Bookstore:
John Ashwoth, “‘Agrarians
& Aristocrats’: Party Political Ideology in the
John Gaventa, Power
and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982)
Jane J. Mansbridge, Why We Lost the ERA (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1986)
Richard K. Matthews, The Radical Politics of Thomas
Jefferson: A Revisionist View (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1984)
Doug McAdam, Political
Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970 2nd
Ed (Chicago:
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (
David Wootton, The
Essential Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers (
Selections from the following
articles and books are on e-reserve at Ames Library, password ‘theory’:
Joyce Appleby, “The Radical Double Entendre in
the Right to Self-Government,” 304-312 in The Origins of Anglo-American
Radicalism Edited by Margaret C.
Jacob and James R. Jacob (London: Humanites Press, 1991)
Orestes Brownson, “The Laboring Classes,” 301-319 in Social
Theories of Jacksonian Democracy Edited by Joseph L. Blau (Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1954)
Paul F. Clark, The Miners’ Fight for Democracy:
John Dewey, The Public and its Problems (New York: Henry Holt, 1927)
W.E.B. DuBois, The
Souls of Black Folk (New York: Signet Classics, 1982)
Richard J. Ellis, American
Political Cultures (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)
Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The
Revolutionary Generation (
John Ferling, Adams v. Jefferson: The Tumultuous
Election of 1800 (
John Gaventa, “Citizen Knowledge, Citizen Competence,
and Democracy Building,” 49-63 in Citizen
Competence and Democratic Institutions Edited by Stephen L. Elkin and Karol
Edward Soltan (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999)
Ray Ginger, Altgeld’s America: The Lincoln Ideal versus Changing Realities (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1965 [1958])
Louis Hartz, “American Political Thought and the
American Revolution,” American Political
Science Review 46 (June 1952):321-342
Louis Hartz, “The Whig Tradition in Europe and
Eric J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848
(New York: Mentor Books, 1962)
Thomas Jefferson, “Query XIV: Laws,” 130-149 in Notes
on the State of
Robert D. Johnson, The
Radical Middle Class (Princeton:
Alice Kessler-Harris, In Pursuit of Equality (
Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982)
Walter Lippmann, Public
Opinion (New York: The Free Press, 1975
[1922])
Thomas Paine, “Agrarian Justice,” 605-623 in The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine
Edited by Philip S. Foner (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1974)
Michael Paul Rogin, The Intellectuals and McCarthy, (Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press, 1967)
Thomas Skidmore, “A Plan for
Equalizing Property,” 355-364 Social Theories of Jacksonian Democracy Edited By Joseph L. Blau (Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1954)
Social contract
Students are required to
complete seven micro-essays (2-3 pages)—the lowest grade is dropped. Help
conserve paper by single-spacing your essay and printing on both sides of a
sheet of paper. All assignments and the final exam will be posted on my
homepage: see the menu page, below the list of classes, click on ASSIGNMENTS.
60% micro-essays (10% each)
25% final exam
15% class participation
No student who misses as many
as eight class sessions, for
whatever reasons, shall receive a passing grade. Any student whose cell phone goes off during
a class session (including the final exam) will have 2 points deducted from the
class participation grade. Because this
is a writing intensive class, students have the opportunity to revise every
micro-essay (except the last). Students must visit me during office hours
with their essay, and then visit me again with a draft of their revision before
submitting their final version. Revision grades will be averaged with the
original grade for the final grade on the assignment. All such revisions must be handed to me on or
before the final class session and must include the original version (April
20).
CLA 251 telephone:
556-3126
TTH 4-5; W 9-11; 1-2 e-mail:
jsimeone@iwu.edu
homepage: http://www.iwu.edu/~jsimeone