Course Syllabus. Course Information HUHI 6342 American Political Cultures: Liberalism JO M 1:00-3:45 Fall 2013

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1 Course Syllabus Course Information HUHI 6342 American Political Cultures: Liberalism JO M 1:00-3:45 Fall 2013 Professor Contact Information Professor Daniel Wickberg Phone: X wickberg@utdallas.edu Office: JO Office Hours: W 2:00-3:00 Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions Graduate Standing, School of Arts and Humanities, or permission of the instructor. Course Description This graduate seminar examines the intellectual and cultural history of American liberalism from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, with special attention to key ideas about selfhood, social order, the roles of reason and emotion in understanding human action, and notions of freedom and progress. The course is concerned less with the political or institutional history of liberalism in terms of changing government policies, and more with examining liberalism as a changing body of beliefs, values, and cultural orientations. Some topics to be considered: what are the core elements of a liberal worldview or sensibility? Has liberalism been the dominant political culture in the United States or are there alternative bodies of thought, such as republicanism, conservativism, or radicalism of various kinds? What have been the defining moments in the history of liberal culture in the United States? In what ways has liberalism changed, and in response to what set of conditions? Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes Course Syllabus Page 1

2 Students will be able to identify and distinguish between the varieties of liberalism specific to particular historical eras and groups of thinkers. Students will be able to describe differences between liberal thought and various other competing political ideologies. Students will be able to demonstrate knowledge of the historiography of American liberal thought and culture. Required Textbooks and Materials The following texts are available for purchase at both the campus bookstore and Off- Campus Books. Please use the assigned editions. Joyce Appleby, Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination Holly Brewer, By Birth or Consent: Children, Law, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority Nancy Cohen, Reconstruction of American Liberalism, John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform Nancy Isenberg, Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America Walter Lippmann, Drift and Mastery Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity Alan Ryan, John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism Michael Sandel, ed., Liberalism and Its Critics Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Vital Center All other required texts will be available through electronic reserve. Assignments & Academic Calendar Monday, August 26 Introduction: No Reading Topics: What is liberalism? Thinking about liberalism historically. What are the alternatives to liberalism? Monday, September 2: Labor Day, No Class. Monday, September 9 Liberalism in Eighteenth Century Thought Reading: Joyce Appleby, Liberalism and Republicanism in the Historical Imagination James Kloppenberg, The Virtues of Liberalism, chapters 1-2; Daniel T. Rodgers, Republicanism: The Career of a Concept, Journal of American Course Syllabus Page 2

3 History 79.1 (June 1992); 11-38; François Furstenberg, Beyond Freedom and Slavery: Autonomy, Virtue, and Resistance in Early American Political Discourse, Journal of American History, 89.4 (Mar. 2003): Monday, September 16 Lockean Liberalism Reading: Holly Brewer, By Birth or Consent: Children, Law, and the Anglo-American Revolution in Authority; Peter Laslett, The Social and Political Theory of Two Treatises of Government, ; C.B. MacPherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism, chapter 1 Monday, September 23 Gender and Contract Reading: Nancy Isenberg, Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America; Amy Dru Stanley, From Bondage to Contract, chap. 1 (pp. 1-59); Elizabeth Clark, The Sacred Rights of the Weak : Pain, Sympathy, and the Culture of Individual Rights in Antebellum America, Journal of American History 82.2 (September 1995): Monday, September 30 Nineteenth Century Liberalism: Laissez-faire and Reform Reading: Nancy Cohen, The Reconstruction of American Liberalism; Dorothy Ross, Socialism and American Liberalism: Academic Social Thought in the 1880 s, Perspectives in American History 11 ( ), pp Monday, October 7 From Progressivism to the New Deal: the invention of modern liberalism I Reading: Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform; Gary Gerstle, The Protean Character of American Liberalism," American Historical Review 99 (October 1994): Monday, October 14 Library Session Short papers due. No reading. Monday, October 21 From Progressivism to the New Deal: the invention of modern liberalism II Reading: Walter Lippmann, Drift and Mastery;; Kathleen Donohue, Freedom from Want, chapter 2, pp ; William James, On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings ; Randolph Bourne, Transnational America ; Robert Park, Human Migration and the Marginal Man Monday, October 28 Dewey Reading: Alan Ryan, John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism; John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action Course Syllabus Page 3

4 Monday, November 4 Paper Outlines Due No Reading Monday November 11 Cold War Liberalism Reading: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Vital Center; Daniel Bell, The End of Ideology in the West ; Richard Pells, The Liberal Mind in a Conservative Age, chap. 4 Conformity and Alienation: Social Criticism in the 1950s, pp Monday, November 18 Contemporary Liberalism, Communitarianism, and Conservatism: The Political Philosophy Reading: Michael Sandel, ed., Liberalism and Its Critics Monday, November 25 Toward a Postmodern Liberalism: the 1960s and Beyond I Reading: Students for a Democratic Society, Port Huron Statement Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, chapter 13; Howard Brick, The Age of Contradiction: American Thought and Culture in the 1960s, chapter 3, pp ; Thomas F. Powers, The Transformation of Liberalism , Public Interest 145 (Fall 2001): 59-82; Alan Brinkley, Dilemmas of Modern Liberalism, Prologue 22.3 (1990): Monday, December 2 Toward a Postmodern Liberalism II Reading: Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity; David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, introduction and chapter 1, pp Monday, December 9 Final Meeting: No Reading Final Papers Due Grading Policy Grades will be assigned on the following basis: Class Participation 40% Short Paper 20% Final Paper 40% You are required to attend class, complete all shared reading assignments, and be prepared to discuss readings. There will be two written assignments. The first will be a short paper of 5 pages analyzing a work we have read in the course. The second will be a research paper, approximately 15 pages in length that draws on primary materials and Course Syllabus Page 4

5 situates them in terms of relevant secondary literature. You will be required to submit a preliminary outline of the paper earlier in the semester, as indicated on the course schedule. I will provide you with more detail on the paper requirements in separate handouts. The research paper can be on any feature of the history of American liberal thought, ideology, or culture. You might choose to focus on a particular thinkers (e.g. E.L. Godkin, Herbert Croly, Jane Addams), a particular school of liberal thought (e.g. Wilsonian internationalists, Cold War liberals, liberal Protestantism, Mugwumps), a theme or strain in liberal thought (e.g. the idea of education in twentieth-century liberalism, anti-catholicism in liberal thought, the relation of Pragmatism to liberalism), or the history of particular liberal concepts (e.g. affirmative action, tolerance, social mobility). If you have questions about your topic, please feel free to consult with me. Course & Instructor Attendance is mandatory. If you must miss class for emergency reasons, please notify me immediately. Please make every effort to be on time; tardiness disrupts the class meeting, and shows a lack of respect for your classmates.. All assignments must be completed in order to pass the class; there are no extra credit or special assignments that can be used to make up for failing to do the assigned work. Students are expected to behave with civility toward one another. Intellectual disagreement is the lifeblood of scholarly work, and is encouraged; by no means, however, will personal attacks or rudeness be tolerated. I aim to create a friendly environment that also fosters intellectual rigor. If I question you about comments you have made, please do not take it as a personal attack or putdown; I am asking you to develop your thinking or follow out the logical consequences of your reasoning. Please give the class your full attention. Turn off all cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices during class meetings. If you have a special need for an exception to this no-laptop policy, please consult with me. Course Syllabus Page 5