POLS 149: American Political Thought MWF 12:50-1:40pm, Lafayette L302 Syllabus

POLS 149: American Political Thought
MWF 12:50-1:40pm, Lafayette L302
Syllabus
Professor Alex Zakaras
Office: 525 Old Mill
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 2:00-3:30pm
[email protected]
(802) 656 8229
This course is designed to introduce students to the main currents of political thought in America
today, to consider their moral and philosophical foundations, and to consider them in historical
perspective. We begin with the debates around the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and with
the Jeffersonian ideal of an agrarian, commercial republic that was so influential in the early
nineteenth century. Industrialization eventually rendered this ideal untenable, and we consider
twentieth century American thought in this light: as an attempt to preserve and reformulate—in
many different, conflicting ways—the ideals of the American founding, and of the Jeffersonian
republic, for an industrial and post-industrial society. We will study New Deal liberalism and the
liberal right alongside conservatism, the New Left, and the newer forms of political radicalism
associated with the environmental movement. We focus largely on the themes of liberty and
equality and their relationship. We finish the class with a section about race in American politics
and political thought.
Course Requirements
1. Attendance and Participation
I expect you to attend each class, to have done the assigned reading in advance, and to
come prepared to discuss the readings. Always bring the assigned readings with you,
along with the reading notes you’ve taken. More than two unexcused absences from
class will lower your participation grade.
Since this course will be run as a seminar, class participation forms an important part of
your grade (20%). You will get high marks if you attend every class and participate
every week in the class discussions, in a way that shows that you’ve read and thought
about the readings.
2. Reading Quizzes
At least once a week, in the first five minutes of one of the class sessions, I will give a
reading quiz. I will give you two quiz questions, and you will get to choose which one to
answer. The quiz questions will be about some of the major themes of the reading
assignment due that day. Quizzes will be graded on a scale from 0 to 10. I grade them for
accuracy and detail: the more accurate and detailed your answer, the higher your score
will be. If you are absent the day I give a quiz, you will get a score of zero on the quiz. I
will not give make-up quizzes, but I will drop your lowest quiz score when calculating
your final grade. If you show up to class and hand in a blank quiz sheet, you get three
points. The reading quizzes will account for 20% of your final grade.
3. Papers
There will be three required papers, each 6-8 pages long, due Thursday, February 12th,
Friday, April 3rd, and Monday, May 4th. I will discuss the expectations with you before I
hand out the first paper assignment.
Late Paper Policy (except for final paper): if you submit your paper within 24
hours of the initial deadline, you lose a third of a grade. If you submit your paper
within one week of the initial deadline, you lose two-thirds of a grade. If you
submit your paper more than a week late but by the last day of class, you lose a
full grade.
Here’s how each of these elements adds up to a final grade:
Class participation
Reading quizzes
First paper
Second paper
Third paper
20%
15%
20%
22.5%
22.5%
Required Books
The following books will be available for purchase at the UVM bookstore in a few weeks.
Please use these editions so that we’re all able to stay on the same page.
John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action (Prometheus)
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (University of Chicago Press)
Bill McKibben, Deep Economy (St. Martin’s Press)
Blackboard
I have created a webpage for this class through Blackboard and posted course materials there. All
reading assignments that are not in the required books can be found on Blackboard (each of these
readings is marked [Bb] on the list below.) To access the page, go to
https://bb.uvm.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp and enter your UVM netid and password. Then
find this course on the course list on the right hand side of the page, and click on it. You’ll find
the reading assignments by clicking the “course materials” link at the top left of the page. Please
print these readings and bring them to class with you.
WEEKLY READING ASSIGNMENTS
I.
Founding
Week 1 (Jan 12-16)
Articles of Confederation [Bb]
The Virginia Plan [Bb]
U.S. Constitution (including amendments 1-10) [Bb]
Letters of Centinel, # 1 [Bb]
Essays of Brutus, # 1, 2 (pp. 117-119) [Bb]
Speeches of Patrick Henry, 5 June 1788 (pp. 297-298) [Bb]
* Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, Ch X and XI
* Herbert Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For, pp. 7-23, 71-76
Week 2 (Jan 21-23) (Short Week)
[No Class Monday (Martin Luther King Holiday)]
Observations of the Federal Farmer, # 3 [Bb]
The Impartial Examiner, Essay I (selections) [Bb]
Letters of Agrippa I [Bb]
Essays of Brutus, # 15 [Bb]
The Federalist, # 1, 2, 6-10 [Bb]
Week 3 (Jan 26-30)
The Federalist, # 14-15, 23, 35, 39, 47-49, 51, 55, 57, 62-63, 70, 78 [Bb]
* Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, Ch XII and XIII
II.
The Jeffersonian Republic
Week 4 (Feb 2-6)
Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 1801 [Bb]
Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785, pp. 210-213, 216-7, 214-5 [Bb]
Jefferson, “Letter to John Adams,” 1813, pp. 538-9 [Bb]
Jefferson, “Letter to Samuel Kercheval,” 1816, pp. 552-561 [Bb]
Jefferson, “Letter to James Madison,” 1785, pp. 395-398 [Bb]
Democratic Review [John O’Sullivan], 1837, “Introduction,” pp. 1-15 [Bb]
Andrew Jackson “Farewell Address,” 1837 [Bb]
III.
The Crisis of Industrialization
Week 5 (Feb 9-13)
Alexis de Tocqueville, “How Industry Could Give Rise to an Aristocracy,” 1840 [Bb]
Orestes Brownson, “The Laboring Classes,” 1840, pp. 9-24 [Bb]
Andrew Carnegie, “Wealth,” 1889 [Bb]
Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life, 1909, pp. 7-26, 101-105 [Bb]
Franklin Roosevelt, “Commonwealth Club Address,” 1932 [Bb]
First paper due: Thursday, Feb. 12th, 5pm
IV.
The Liberal Left
Week 6 (Feb 18-20) (Short Week)
[No Class Monday (Presidents’ Day)]
John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action, pp. 1-2, 28-93 (chapters II and III)
* Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America, Ch 1 and 2
Week 7 (Feb 23-27)
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, §1-6, 9-13 (Note: complicated and somewhat technical discussion on pp.
58-72, you could skim the following sections: pp. 58- top of 62; bottom of 65 - bottom of 67, “chain
connection” discussion on pp. 70-72; read the rest, and please note that pp. 62-65 is important.) [Bb]
Bernie Sanders, Address to Congress, June 27, 2011 [Bb]
SPRING BREAK: March 2-6
V.
The Liberal Right
Week 8 (Mar 9-13)
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom, pp. 1-36, 108-118, 133-136, 161-202
Week 9 (Mar 16-20)
Ayn Rand, “John Galt’s Speech” (shortened) [Bb]
Rand Paul, speech to CPAC, 2014 [Bb]
Russell Kirk, “Libertarians: Chirping Sectaries,” 1996 (9 pages) [Bb]
* Daniel Rodgers, Age of Fracture, Ch 2: “The Rediscovery of the Market”
VI.
Conservatism
Week 10 (Mar 23-27)
Irving Kristol, “Capitalism, Socialism, and Nihilism,” 1973, pp. 98-103 [Bb]
Russell Kirk, “What Is Conservatism?” 1982, pp. 3-16 [Bb]
Russell Kirk, “Why I Am a Conservative,” 1963 (4 pages) [Bb]
Irving Kristol, “America’s ‘Exceptional’ Conservatism,” 1995 (14 pages) [Bb]
Irving Kristol, “The Adversary Culture of the Intellectuals” (17 pages) [Bb]
*Carey McWilliams, “Ambiguities and Ironies: Conservatism and Liberalism in the American Political
Tradition” [Bb]
Week 11 (Mar 30-April 3)
Irving Kristol, “No Cheers for the Profit Motive,” 1979 (4 pages) [Bb]
Irving Kristol, “Men, Women, and Sex” (4 pages) [Bb]
Irving Kristol, “Reflections on Love and Family,” p. 57 [Bb]
Richard John Neuhaus, The Naked Public Square, selections TBA
James Ault, “What Liberal Delusions About Conservatism Teach” [Bb]
*Jim Morone, Hellfire Nation, pp. 1-28
[April 3: No Class]
Second paper due: Friday, April 3, 5pm
VII.
The New Left
Week 12 (Apr 6-10)
Students for a Democratic Society, “Port Huron Statement,” 1962 [Bb]
Herbert Marcuse, “An Essay on Liberation,” 1969, pp. 9-30, 88-93 [Bb]
Richard Rorty, “A Cultural Left,” 1997 [Bb]
VIII.
Environmentalism and the Rebirth of History
Week 13 (Apr 13-17)
Bill McKibben, Deep Economy, pp. 1-45, 95-128
[Apr 17: No Class]
IX.
Race
Week 14 (Apr 20-24)
Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785, pp. 185-199 [Bb]
W.E.B. Dubois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” “Of the Sons of Master and Man,” 1903 [Bb]
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” [Bb]
Malcolm X, “Message to the Grass Roots,” 1963 [Bb]
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” 1964, short selections [Bb]
Eldridge Cleaver, “Domestic Law and International Order” + short selections, 1968 [Bb]
Week 15 (Apr 27-29) (short week)
Na-Tehisi Coates, “The Champion Barack Obama” [Bb]
Na-Tehisi Coates, “The Secret Lives of Inner City Black Males” [Bb]
Jonathan Chait, “Barack Obama, Na-Tehisi Coates, Poverty, and Culture” [Bb]
Na-Tehisi Coates, “Black Pathology and the Closing of the Progressive Mind” [Bb]
Jonathan Chait, “Barack Obama vs. the Culture of Poverty” [Bb]
Na-Tehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” [Bb]
Final paper due: Monday, May 4th, 1pm
CLASSROOM PROTOCOL
The Department of Political Science requires that this classroom protocol, defining minimum standards of
conduct, be included in all syllabi.
1.
Students are expected to attend and be prepared for ALL regularly scheduled classes.
2.
Students are expected to arrive on time and stay in class until the class period ends. If a student
knows in advance that he/she will need to leave early, he/she should notify the instructor before
the class period begins.
3.
Students are expected to treat faculty and fellow students with respect. For example, students
must not disrupt class by leaving and reentering during class, must not distract class by making
noise, and must be attentive to comments being made by the instructors and by peers.
RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS
If you wish to be excused from class or work because of a religious holiday, please email me about the
holiday(s) by the end of the second week of class, and we’ll work something out.