The American Political Tradition in Theory and Practice 4219-SB144

The course examines the most important elements constituting early American political tradition and civic culture. It traces the evolution of American political tradition from the colonial era to early 20th-century.

Topics include:
• Puritanism and the role of religious ideas in shaping American political culture;
• Missionary character of American political experience
• American ‘founding myths’ (New Jerusalem vs. New Troy);
• Seventeenth and eighteenth–century English political thought and its impact on American political and legal tradition;
• The philosophical and legal arguments used by the colonists during the American Revolution;
• The role of contractualism in American political and legal tradition;
• The debate on the ratification of the Constitution (Federalists vs Anti-Federalists);
• The basic elements of American political system and their ideological/philosophical justification;
• Recurring controversies concerning the nature of the Union and mutual relations between federal and state governments (Calhoun, Webster, nullification crisis);
• Federalism and states’ rights;
• Debate concerning slavery;
• Transcendentalism in American political tradition
• Progressivism and the rise of the ‘positive state’
• The evolution of the meaning of such ideas as freedom and equality in American history.

The course will conclude with the presentation of the variety of interpretative keys that can be used in order to understand American political tradition.

This course is not a lecture but a workshop with a substantive workload for students. It will be devoted strictly to critical reading of primary sources.
During the course the students will read and analyze the basic ‘founding documents’ of the United States, such as: Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution of the United States, The Federalist Papers – discovering both their original and contemporary understanding. They will become familiar with excerpts from the writings of the Founding Fathers. Selected speeches of American statesmen and political leaders will be read and analyzed as well as resolutions adopted by state legislatures.

A list of topics
1.
Course overview: rules and grading; the concept and techniques of critical reading.

Readings: http://owll.massey.ac.nz/study-skills/critical-reading.php

2-3.
The puritan heritage: politics and religion
city upon a hill, utopias and anti-utopias, Mayflower Compact. The role of Protestantism in shaping American political tradition

Primary sources:
1) Winthrop John, “A Model of Christian Charity”;
2) Wise John, “Democracy is Founded in Scripture”;
3) Williams Roger, “The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause of Conscience” (APT);
4) “Mayflower Compact” *

Secondary sources:
1) Noll M. A., The Contingencies of Christian Republicanism in: Protestantism and the American Founding, ed. T. Engeman, M. Zuckert, (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press 2004);
2) Morgan Edmund S. “The Puritan Ethic and the American Revolution”, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jan., 1967);
3) Beitzinger A. J., A History of American Political Thought, New York & Toronto: Dodd, Mead & Company 1972, chapter 2 (The City on a Hill: Puritan Political Thought).

Supplementary readings:
1) Hutson James H., Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Washington DC: Library of Congress 1998
2) Library of Congress exhibition: Religion and the Founding of the American Republic: available at:
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/index.html
3) Rosano Michael J., John Winthrop, John Cotton, and Nathaniel Niles: The Basic Principles of Puritan Political Thought, [in:] HAPT;

4.
City upon a hill – recurring theme in American politics: missionary character of American political experience; self-examination and reform; a ‘more perfect Union’.

Readings:
Primary sources:
1) Winthrop John, “A Modell of Christian Charity” /excerpts/;
2) Declaration of Independence (first two paragraphs) and The Constitution (preamble);
3) Lincoln Abraham, “Gettysburg Address”
4) King Martin Luther, “I have a dream” /excerpt/;
5) Kennedy John Fitzgerald, “Inaugural Address”;
6) “What We’re Fighting For: A Letter from America”;
7) Obama Barrack, “Speech on Race: A More Perfect Union” (APT).

Secondary sources
1) Lipset Seymour Martin, “Affirmative Action and the American Creed”, The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter, 1992).

Supplementary readings:
1) Kowalczyk Michał, Lśniące miasto na wzgórzu: ideowe podstawy amerykańskiego unilateralizmu w okresie rządów George'a Busha, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo „von borowiecky” 2008.

5.
The English heritage (inspirations): Whig science of politics; British commonwealth tradition; (proto)liberalism; social contract.

Primary sources:
1) Locke John, “Second Treaty on Government” /excerpts/;
2) "Cato's Letters” No. 33;

Secondary sources:
1) Wood Gordon, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press 1987, chapter 1.
2) Hamowy Ronald. “Cato's Letters, John Locke, and the Republican Paradigm”, History of Political Thought, vol. 11, no. 2, 1990, pp. 273–294

Supplementary readings:
1) Curti Merle, “Mr. Locke: America's Philospher, 1783-1861”, The Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 11 (April 1937);
2) Annie Mitchell, “A Liberal Republican ‘Cato’”, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 47, No. 3, July 2004

6.
The English heritage in use: American/English Revolution

Primary sources:
1) Declaration of Rights and Grievances (Stamp Act Congress 1765); *
2) Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress (1774); *
3) The Declaration of Independence (1776). *

Supplementary readings:
1) Paine Thomas, “Common Sense” (APT);
2) Adams Samuel, “The Rights of the Colonists” (APT).

Secondary sources:
1) Koritansky John, Thomas Paine: The American Radical (HAPT);

7.
Ideas and institutions: the analysis of American political system

Primary sources:
1) The Constitution of the United States*

Secondary sources:
1) Alexander Ross C., The U. S. Constitution, [in:] The Basics of American Government, ed. Carl D. Cavalli, Dahlonega, GA: University Press of North Georgia 2013;
2) James McClellan, Liberty, Order, and Justice, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 2000 (part 1)

8.
The Nation’s first great debate: Federalists vs Anti-Federalists

Primary sources:
1) Federalist no. 67, 70, 57, 62, 63, 78, 83;
2) Letters of Cato no. 4, 5;
3) Letters of Centinel no. 1;
4) Essays of Brutus, no. 11, 12, 15.

Secondary sources:
1) Dry Murray, Anti-Federalist Political Thought: Brutus and the Federal Farmer (HAPT);

Supplementary readings:
1) Storing Herbert J, What the Anti-Federalists Were For. The Political Thought of the Opponents of the Constitution, Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press 1981;
2) Maier Pauline, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution 1787–1788, New York: Simon & Schuster 2010

9–10.
The Nature of the American Union.
Nullification crisis, states’ rights doctrine, and the prelude to the secession.

Primary sources:
1) “Webster – Hayne Debate” (1830), in: American Historical Documents;
2) Calhoun John, “The Fort Hill Address” (1831);
3) “South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification” (1832);
4) Jackson Andrew, “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina” (1832);
5) Calhoun John, “A Disquisition on Government” (APT). *

Secondary sources:
Agresto John, “John C. Calhoun and the Reexamination of American Democracy” in HAPT.

11.
The Nation’s second great debate: slavery – a defense and critique of the institution; post-abolitionist dilemmas, long-term consequences of the 14th Amendment

Readings:
1) Lincoln Abraham, “Speech on Dred Scott Decision”; “House Divided Speech”; (APT)
2) “Lincoln – Douglas Debates”, in American Historical Documents;
3) Fitzhugh George, “Cannibals All!” (APT);
4) Post-abolition Amendments to the US Constitution (13, 14, 15)

12.
Transcendentalism
Individualism and democracy.

Readings:
Primary sources:
1) Emerson Ralph Waldo, “Self-Reliance”; “Politics” in APT-NA;
2) Thoreau Henry David, “Resistance to Civil Government” in APT-NA.

Secondary sources:
Frost Bryan-Paul, “Religion, Nature and Disobedience in the Thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau”, in HAPT.

Supplementary readings:
Whitman Walt, Democratic Vistas.

13.
Progressivism and the rise of the ‘positive’ state

Readings:
1) Croly Herbert, The Promise of American Life, New York: Macmillan, 1909 (APT);
2) Roosevelt Theodore, New Nationalism (1910)
3) “The Progressive Party Platform” (1912) – APT

Secondary Readings:
1) Engeman Thomas, “Herbert Croly’s Progressive Liberalism”, in HAPT;

14.
Interpreting American political tradition: varieties of interpretative keys.

Primary sources:
1) Hartz Louis, The Liberal Tradition in America, San Diego [etc.]: HBJ Publishers 1983, pp. 3–14, 20–23.
2) Pocock John G. A., The Machiavellian Moment. Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, various editions, chapter 15;
3) Smith Rogers, “Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz. Multiple traditions in America”, American Political Science Review.

Secondary sources:
1) George Carey, A Students Guide to American Political Thought, p. 11–43.
2) Alan Gibson, “Ancients, Moderns and Americans: The Republicanism–Liberalism Debate Revisited,” History of Political Thought, Vol. 21, no. 2 (Summer 2000)

Supplementary readings:
1) Gajek M., "North vs. South or New Jerusalem vs. New Troy. American founding myths", Ad Americam. Journal of American Studies, vol. 14 (2013), p. 19-35;

15.
Summary of the course and grading.

* We read texts marked with (*) together in the class.