Princeton University
Department of Politics
Politics 321: American Political Thought
Spring 1995
Jennifer Hochschild

Course Description

Unlike many political philosophy courses which focus on the genius of individual thinkers, this course is organized around themes that recur throughout American history and shape American identity. we examine both the perennial nature of these themes, and how they change and are changed by people, events, and new contexts.

We also explore how these themes appear to Americans of different races, genders, ethnicities, regions, and classes. The central focus of the course is "the American dream." I will provide a broad analytic definition of the dream; the readings, lectures, and precepts will extend that definition, suggest some of the virtues and defects of organizing a society in accord with that ideology, propose alternatives, and discuss how it has been perceived by Americans of various persuasions at various periods of history.

To accomplish these goals, the course mostly but not always follows chronological order. You will read a combination of short pieces which capture the essence of an idea and longer works that suggest its development in the hands of one writer.

Course Requirements

Requirements include informed participation in lectures and precepts (25% of the grade), two short papers (25% of the grade each), and a final exam (25% of the grade). We reserve the right to adjust strict arithmetic grades depending on effort, trajectory, special circumstances, and the like. We will provide a handout for each paper close to the time that it is due. You must complete each component of the course to pass.

Course Books

Books are available in the UStore and at the Reserve Room at Firestone Library. Required books are:

* Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (any complete edition acceptable)

* John Hope Franklin, ed., Three Negro Classics (New York: Avon Books)

* Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers (any complete edition acceptable)

* Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (NY: W.W. Norton, 1975)

* William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe To Each Other (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1974)

* Henry David Thoreau, Walden (any complete edition acceptable)

* Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (any complete edition acceptable)

(Note: the least expensive complete editions of these books are at the UStore.)

You are also asked to purchase a packet of xeroxed material from the business Office, 4th floor of the Woodrow Wilson School. The cost of packet will be announced in class. Two complete copies of the packet will be on reserve at Firestone Library.

This course assumes a fair knowledge of American history. If your knowledge is shaky, plan on reading an American history textbook as we progress through the course. I will suggest several possibilities.

Daily Assignments

Note: All assigned material not in one of the books listed above is in the xeroxed packet.

January 31: The American Dream

February 2: Overviews of American Political Thought

Robert Dahl, "On Removing Certain Impediments to Democracy in the United States"

Samuel Huntington, American Politics: The Promise of Disharmonv, excerpts Rogers

Smith, "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz...

February 7: The Puritans' Vision of the American Dream

John Winthrop, "A Modell of Christian Charity" John Winthrop, " 'Little Speech' on Liberty" Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of the Captivity, excerpts

February 9: Colonial Virginians' Vision of the American Dream

Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom, chapters 12, 13, and especially 15-l8

February 14: Benjamin Franklin and the Self made Man

Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Parts I and II

February 16: The Revolution and the Self made Nation

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, excerpts Jonathan Boucher, "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution" Letter on Slavery, By a Negro Abigail Adams and John Adams, Letters

February 21: The Federalists

The Federalist Papers, nos. 1, 9, 10, 15, 23, 35, 39, 51, 54, 55, 84 The Constitution of the United States

February 23: The Anti-Federalists

"The Federal Farmer," Observations, Nos. I V

'Brutus," Essays, Nos. I, II, III

February 28 and March 2: Alexis de Tocqueville on Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. I:

Author's Preface to 12th Edition

Author's Introduction

Part I, chapters 3, 5

Part II, chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. II

Author's Preface

Part I, chapters 2, 5, 8

Part II, chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16

Part III, chapters 1, 2, 10, 12, 17, 19

Part IV, chapters 1-3, 6-8

PAPER ON DE TOCQUEVILLE DUE IN CLASS, March 6

March 7: Andrew Jackson and the Invigoration of the American Dream

The Democratic Review, "An Introductory Statement of the Democratic

Principle"

Andrew Jackson, A Political Testament

George Bancroft, "The Office of the People"

Horace Greeley, "Life The Ideal and the Actual"

March 9: The Transcendentalists' Revision of the American Dream

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, chapters 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 11, and 18

March 21: Can the American Dream Encompass Enslavement?

John C. Calhoun, Speech on the Reception of Abolition Petitions

William Harper, "Slavery in the Light of Social Ethics"

Thomas R. Dew, "Abolition of Negro Slavery"

William Lloyd Garrison, Declaration of Sentiments of the American AntiSlavery Convention

Frederick Douglass, "The Various Phases of AntiSlavery"

Frederick Douqlass, "The Future of the Colored Race"

March 23: Abraham Lincoln Reformulates the American Dream

Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford

Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Springfield

Stephen A. Douglas, Speech at Chicago

Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address

March 28: The Frontier and American Identity

John C. Calhoun, "Indian Removal: The Government Policy"

John L. O'Sullivan, "The Spirit of Manifest Destiny"

Standing Bear, "The Land Was Owned by Our Tribe"

Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History "

March 30: Social Darwinism: The American Dream Gets Tough

William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other, chapters 1, 2, 5, 8, 9

Russell Conwell, "Acres of Diamonds"

April 4: Populist Visions of the American Dream

People's Party Platform

William Jennings Bryan, "Cross of Gold"

James B. Weaver, "A Call to Action"

Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward, excerpts

April 6: May African Americans Partake of the American Dream?

Supreme Court, Plessy v. Ferguson

Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery, chapters 1-3, 13-15

W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, chapters l, 3, 9

Marcus Garvey, "African Fundamentalism"

Marcus Garvey, "A Barefaced Colored Leader"

Marcus Garvev. Bill of Rights

April 11: May Women Partake of the American Dream?

Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al., Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls

Sojourner Truth, "Ain't I a Woman?"

The "16th" Amendment

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Women and Economics, excerpts

Francis Parkman, "The Woman Question"

April 13: Can the Progressives Modernize the Dream?

Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life, chapters 1, 13

Henry Adams. The Education, chapters 3, 25, 34, 35

April 18: Social Justice: Conservative Visions

Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, chapter 6

Friedrich Hayek, The Mirage of Social Justice, excerpts

John Diggins, The Lost Soul of American Politics, Introduction, chapter 5

April 20: Social Justice: Radical Visions

Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

Malcolm X, "The Ballot or the Bullets"

Emma Goldman, "Anarchism"

Tom Hayden et al., The Port Huron Statement

Margaret Benston, "The Political Economy of Women's Liberation"

April 25: Citizenship and Membership

Theodore Roosevelt, "Americanism"

Horace Kallen, "Democracy versus the MeltingPot"

Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The Disuniting of America, chapters 4, 5

Michael Walzer. "What Does It Mean To Be an American?"

April 27: The American Dream: An Assessment

Charles Lindblom, "The Market as Prison"

Carole Pateman, "The Patriarchal Welfare State"

James Baldwin, "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind"

Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory, excerpts

SECOND PAPER, ON TOPIC OF YOUR CHOICE, DUE MAY 1, BY 4 P.M. IN MS. COONEY'S OFFICE