SOCIOLOGY 352: THE SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY Spring 2012 T 1:30PM 4:20PM, Lewis Library 306

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1 SOCIOLOGY 352: THE SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN POLITICAL HISTORY Spring 2012 T 1:30PM 4:20PM, Lewis Library 306 Instructor Adam Slez Office Hours: T 9AM 11AM aslez@princeton.edu 108 Wallace Hall Objectives The goal of this course is to introduce students to core concepts in political and historical sociology through a broad overview of American political history from the revolutionary period to the present. Drawing on a wide range of empirical research, we will focus on large scale processes such as state formation and the rise of capitalism, as well as the ways in which distinctions related to factors such as race, class, and gender have influenced patterns of political contention over time. In doing so, we will address topics including social networks, class formation, political opportunity structures, movement dynamics, civic engagement, public opinion, and state-centered accounts of political behavior. Required texts Historical sociology tends to be a book-oriented subfield. Books, unfortunately, can be expensive. Consequently, I have tried to make use of articles as much as possible. The following texts are required: Elisabeth S. Clemens, The People s Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997) Joseph Gerteis, Class and the Color Line: Interracial Class Coalition in the Knights of Labor and the Populist Movement (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007) Chad Alan Goldberg, Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights, and Race, from the Freedmens Bureau to Workfare (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007) Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, , 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999) Isaac William Martin, The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax Transformed American Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008) Greta R. Krippner, Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance (Harvard University Press, 2011) 1

2 Reading All of the texts listed above can be purchased through Labyrinth Books. Copies have also been placed on reserve at Firestone Library. The remaining readings are available through either e-reserve or Blackboard depending on the reading in question. Selections should be read in the order listed. Course requirements This class is designed to be a seminar which means that the quality of the course is a function of the quality of participation. Good discussion requires that we all be on roughly the same page, so to speak, at the start of any class meeting. Consequently, perhaps the most fundamental requirement of this course is that you keep up with the assigned reading. I will typically try and keep required readings to around 100 pages per week. In practice, your actual reading load will likely be somewhat higher than this given the need to draw on additional sources for the purposes of writing mid-terms and finals. Learning to digest large quantities of material is a real skill and should be learned sooner rather than later. As a means of facilitating group discussion, students will be asked to submit weekly response papers no later than 5PM the day before class meets (i.e. no later than 5PM on Monday). Response papers should be no more than roughly 300 words in length. While your ideas should be clear, I don t expect these to be polished papers. The purpose of this assignment is to give you a chance to critically engage with the material and generate potential discussion points. A good response paper should have more in the way of original thoughts and less in the way of summary, though clear exposition with respect to the former may necessitate some of the latter. In lieu of a mid-term and final exam, students will be asked to write two 7 10 page papers, each of which will focus on a specific theme. The mid-term paper will address Alexis de Tocqueville s contribution to historical and political sociology by discussing the way in which the arguments set out in Democracy in America have been used to inform discussions of civic engagement in American society. A good paper should incorporate the work of both Tocqueville (if only briefly), as well contemporary Tocquevillian s and their critics. The final paper will address the so-called culture wars hypothesis. In this context, a good paper should both define the concept in question, as well as present secondary evidence for and against the argument that Americans have become increasingly divided. Students will be required to submit a working bibliography for each paper at least two weeks prior to the final due date. Grading Your grade for this course will be based on weekly participation plus two papers. Final grades will be calculated as follows: Participation 24% Mid-term paper 38% Final paper 38% 2

3 Weekly response papers will be factored into the participation grade while working bibliographies will be factored into each of the corresponding paper grades. Note: ER = e-reserve; BB = Blackboard Class Schedule Week 1 (2/7): American Exceptionalism Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marx, It Didn t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000). Read: [ER] Richard W. Stevenson, Exceptionalism Argument May Prove Potent for Republicans (selection from the New York Times online from November 18, 2011). [BB] Week 2 (2/14): The Formation of the American State Roger V. Gould, Uses of Network Tools in Comparative Historical Research, pp in Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, edited by James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). [ER] Henning Hillmann, Localism and the Limits of Political Brokerage: Evidence from Revolutionary Vermont, American Journal of Sociology 114 (2008): [BB] Roger V. Gould, Patron-Client Ties, State Centralization, and the Whiskey Rebellion, American Journal of Sociology 102 (1996): [BB] Week 3 (2/21): Class Coalitions and the Civil War Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993 [1966]). Read: pp. xvii xxiv, , Cedric de Leon, No Bourgeois Mass Party, No Democracy : The Missing Link in Barrinton Moore s American Civil War, Political Power and Social Theory 19 (2008): [BB] 3

4 Week 4 (2/28): Race, Citizenship, and Reconstruction Chad Alan Goldberg,Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights, and Race, from the Freedmens Bureau to Workfare (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). Read: pp ***WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR MID-TERM PAPERS DUE*** ***GUEST SPEAKER: CHAD GOLDBERG*** Week 5 (3/6): Class Formation and the American Labor Movement Sarah Babb, A True American System of Finance : Frame Resonance in the U.S. Labor Movement, 1866 to 1886, American Sociological Review 61 (1996): [BB] Carol Connell and Kim Voss, Formal Organization and the Fate of Social Movements: Craft Association and Class Alliance in the Knights of Labor, American Sociological Review 55 (1990): [BB] Kim Voss, Disposition Is Not Action: The Rise and Demise of the Knights of Labor, Studies in American Political Development 6 (1992): [ER] Week 6 (3/13): Race, Class, and the Populist Moment Joseph Gerteis, Class and the Color Line: Interracial Class Coalition in the Knights of Labor and the Populist Movement (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007). Read: pp , , Week 7 (3/20): SPRING BREAK ***MID-TERM PAPERS DUE*** Week 8 (3/27): Political Repertoires and Progressive Reform Elisabeth S. Clemens, The People s Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997). Read: 1 15, 65 99,

5 Week 9 (4/3): The New Deal and American Social Policy Theda Skocpol, Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research, pp in Bringing the State Back In, edited by Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). [ER] Theda Skocpol and Kenneth Finegold, State Capacity and Economic Intervention in the Early New Deal, Political Science Quarterly 97 (1982): [BB] Jess Gilbert and Carolyn Howe, Beyond State vs. Society : Theories of the State and New Deal Agricultural Policies, American Sociological Review 56 (1991): [BB] Week 10 (4/10): Social Movements and the Struggle for Civil Rights Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, , 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999). Read: 20 59, Week 11 (4/17): The Tax Revolt Isaac William Martin, The Permanent Tax Revolt: How the Property Tax Transformed American Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008). Read: pp. 1 49, Week 12 (4/24): Movement Dynamics and LGBTQ Rights Mary Bernstein, Celebration and Suppression: The Strategic Uses of Identity by the Lesbian and Gay Movement, American Journal of Sociology 103 (1997): [BB] Tina Fetner, Working Anita Bryant: The Impact of Christian Anti-Gay Activism on Lesbian and Gay Movement Claims, Social Forces 48 (2001): [BB] Elizabeth A. Armstrong, From Struggle to Settlement: The Crystallization of a Field of Lesbian/Gay Organizations in San Francisco, , pp in Social Movements and Organization Theory, edited by Gerald F. Davis, Doug McAdam, W. Richard Scott, and Mayer Zald (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). [ER] Week 13 (5/1): The Political Foundations of the Fiscal Crisis Greta R. Krippner, Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance (Harvard University Press, 2011). Read: 1 28,