Trans-Atlantic Conservatism since World War II. (An Upper-Level Undergraduate Seminar)

Transcription

1 Trans-Atlantic Conservatism since World War II (An Upper-Level Undergraduate Seminar) Contact Information Instructor: Giuliana Chamedes Office & Skype hours: TBA address: Office address: Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, rm.120 Course Description This seminar focuses on the history of conservative thought in Europe and the United States since World War II. After a period of relative neglect, the field is currently exploding, though comparative studies are few. The purpose of this seminar will be to bring together the historiography on European and American conservatism, and probe the question of the relation between anti-communism and the rise of a variety of conservative movements on both sides of the Atlantic after World War II. Questions addressed will include: What is conservatism? What traditions do conservatives "conserve"? Is conservatism populist or elitist, democratic or aristocratic? Is religion compatible with conservatism? Throughout, our focus will be on whether in the postwar years it is possible to consider conservatism a trans-atlantic political ideology that in some meaningful sense defined itself in opposition to the perceived core tenets of the communist worldview. No prior knowledge of European or American history or political theory is required; all that is needed is a willingness to engage in an open-minded and non-biased form with the core texts of the postwar conservative movement. Course Policies This seminar will be successful only if all of its members actively participate in class each week. Students are expected to read all assigned texts, and take part in discussion with honesty and respect. To facilitate discussion, students will be asked to pre-circulate three to five discussion questions, which reflect critical engagement with course material, by 5pm on the night before class. The pre-circulation of discussion questions is graded separately from participation. In addition to participating by pre-circulating questions and taking active part in class discussion, students are expected to complete two short papers (each 4-6 pages long), one research paper (of c.12 pages) and one oral presentation (of minutes). To help students improve their writing and research skills, they will be asked to pre-circulate an outline of their second short paper, and a draft of their research paper. Details about these assignments will be distributed three weeks prior to the due dates, which are listed 1

2 on the syllabus. Grade Breakdown Overall, grades in the seminar will be assigned as follows: Weekly participation 30% Discussion questions 10% Short paper outline 5% Short papers 20% Draft of final paper 5% Final paper 20% Oral presentation 10% Lateness Policy Late papers will be marked down one grade step for each day late (i.e., A to A-, B+ to B, etc.). Extensions will be granted only if requested one week in advance of the deadline, and if the reasons for which they are being requested is valid. Absenteeism or lateness to class will be deducted from the participation grade. Academic Integrity Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. Furthermore, if you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc.), you must acknowledge this assistance. If you have any questions about citation format or academic integrity policies, please contact me. Course Material Most of the course material will be made available via isites or at Widener. Please check isites regularly for any course updates. 2

3 Course Outline Week 1 Theorizing Conservatism Introductory Readings Alan Brinkley, The Problem of American Conservatism The American Historical Review (henceforth AHR) 99, 2 (April 1994): Rahel Jaeggi, "Rethinking Ideology," in New Waves in Political Philosophy, edited by Boudewijn de Bruin and Christopher F. Zurn (2009), Michael Kimmage, "Review Essay: The Historiography of Conservatism" AHR, forthcoming. Markku Ruotsila, "International Anti-Communism Before the Cold War: Success and Failure in the Building of a Transnational Right," in New Perspectives on the Transnational Right, eds. Martin Durham and Margaret Power (2010), Week 2 The Origins of Conservatism and Anticommunism in Europe Karl Mannheim, Conservative Thought (1925), as reprinted in From Karl Mannheim Pope Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris (1937) Darrin M. McMahon, Enemies of the Enlightenment: The French Counter-Enlightenment and the Making of Modernity (2001), Giuliana Chamedes, "The Theory and Practice of Liberal, Catholic and Fascist Anti- Communism in the Interwar Years," forthcoming. Kathy Olmstead, "'Duce Envy': American Conservatives and Fascism in the 1930s" (forthcoming, 2012) Week 3 Opposition to the New Deal and the Origins of the American Conservative Movement Select posters and pamphlets from the Associated Farmers lobby 3

4 1938 Father Coughlin sermon Ira Katznelson, Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2013), chaps.1-3 Charles Gallagher, "Silencing Charlie: The Rev. Charles E. Coughlin and the Vatican," in Vatican Secret Diplomacy (2008), Week 4 Religion and the Postwar Reinvention of Trans-Atlantic Conservative Thought Possible Guest Seminar Participant (on Skype): Samuel Goldman Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences (1948), excerpts Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History (1953), Introduction, chaps 1 and 3 Willmoore Kendall, What Is Conservatism? Modern Age (December 1962): Samuel Goldman, The Shadow of God: Strauss, Jacobi, and the Theologico-Political Problem (2010), selections Week 5 European Emigrants, the United States, and the Origins of Second-Wave Christian Democracy Jacques Maritain, Christianity and Democracy (1942/3), ch.1 Alcide De Gasperi et al., The Code of Camaldoli (1943), entire Select OSS pamphlets on Christianity and Democracy, distributed in Europe and Latin America 4

5 Martin Conway, "Democracy in Postwar Western Europe: The Triumph of a Political Model," European History Quarterly, 32 (2002): Wolfram Kaiser, "Chapter 4: In the Shadow of Dictatorship: Contacts in Exile," in Christian Democracy and the Origins of the European Union (2007) Week 6 The United States, European Reconstruction and the Rise of Conservative Democracies Pius XII, "Christmas Sermon" (1944) Alcide De Gasperi, The Word to the Christian Democrats (1944) Select letters between Harry Truman, Myron Taylor and Pope Pius XII Jan-Werner Müller, "Reconstruction Thought: Self-Disciplined Democracies, 'People's Democracies,'" Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth-Century Europe (2011), Nadia Urbinati, "Conquering Liberal Society," The Political Language of Christian Democracy (2012): Week 7 Transnational Anticommunism and the Birth of the Cold War George Marshall, "The Marshall Plan" (June 1947), Harvard commencement address, in The Cold War: A History in Documents, Vyshinsky speech to the UN General Assembly (September 1947), in ibid., "The Warsaw Pact" (1955), from Soviet News, No (May 16, 1955), 1-2. Available online at the Modern History Sourcebook. Tony Judt, "The Coming of the Cold War," in Postwar,

6 Jonathan P. Herzog "Chapter 2: Enemy," in The Spiritual-Industrial Complex: America's Religious Battle against Communism in the Early Cold War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), Anders Stephanson, "Fourteen Notes on the Very Concept of Cold War," H-Diplo Essays (1996/2007) Week 8 Anti-Totalitarianism and the Cold War Academy Possible guests on Skype: Ron Robin discussing Nathan Leites, or Peter Mandler on Margaret Mead Nathan Leites, The Operational Code of the Politburo (1951), chap. 1 Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), chap.4 Ron Robin, "Psychopolitics and Primary Groups: Theories of Culture and Society in Cold War Academia," in The Making of the Cold War Enemy: Culture and Politics in the Military- Intellectual Complex (2001), Benjamin R. Barber, "Hannah Arendt Between Europe and America," in Politics in Dark Times: Encounters with Hannah Arendt, ed. Seyla Benhabib (2010) David H. Price, "A Running Start at the Cold War," Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI's Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists (2004), Week 9 The Cultural Cold War: Promoting Non-Communist Ways of Life Select Marshall Plan films exported throughout Europe, Select posters and Vatican-funded films from 1948 elections in Italy David W. Ellwood, "The 1948 Elections in Italy: A Cold War Propaganda Battle," Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 13 (1993): Victoria de Grazia, Irresistible Empire: America's Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe (2005), chapter 7. 6

7 John Sbardellati, J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of Hollywood's Cold War (2012), selections Week 10 The Free Market against State Planning Friedrich Hayek, The Uses of Knowledge in Society (Sep. 1945), and Individualism: True and False (Dec. 1945) in Individualism and Economic Order (1948; collected essays from ) Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944), selections Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression (2012), selections Daniel Rodgers, The Rediscovery of the Market, in Age of Fracture (2011), Week 11 Libertarianism and Neoliberalism vs. Soviet-Style Collectivism Selections from Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957), drawn from The Ayn Rand Reader (1999) Pierre Bourdieu, "Neoliberalism as Conservative Revolution," as reprinted in Political Interventions (2008), Jennifer Burns, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (2009), 67-99; Anne Heller, Ayn Rand and the World She Made (2009), Introduction. Week 12 Neoconservatism in Europe and the Americas Irving Kristol, Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea (1995), chap. 1. Idem, "Memoirs of a Trotskyist," New York Times Magazine, January 23, 1977; and "The Adversary Culture of Intellectuals," Encounter, October 1979, as reprinted in Reflections of a Neoconservative (1983) 7

8 Annie Kriegel, Memoirs (1991), translated selections Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement (2010), Introduction and ch.1 Jan-Werner Müller, Dirk Van Laak and Jerry Muller, "German Conservatism: From Technocratic Conservatism to the New Right," in German Ideologies since 1945: Studies in the Political Thought and Culture of the Bonn Republic, ed. Jan-Werner Müller (2003), introduction {8 pgs} Martin Durham and Margaret Power, "Transnational Conservatism: The New Right, Neoconservatism, and Cold War Anti-Communism," in New Perspectives on the Transnational Right, eds. Martin Durham and Margaret Power (2010), Week 13 Concluding Thoughts Student presentations Silvio Berlusconi, Una storia italiana (translated selections) Select tea party posters on state socialism Mark Lilla, "Republicans for Revolution," New York Review of Books (January 2012) Jan-Werner Müller, "Antipolitics, and the Sense of an Ending," in Contesting Democracy,