Power, Politics, and Institutions in the United States

Catalog description

This course focuses on a specific political institution or institutions that illustrates larger dynamics and aspects of power, politics, and institutions within the American experience. The overarching objective of the course is to explore the multi-faceted, dynamic, and intersecting dimensions of power within the American political and historical script, as formal rules and structures as well as human experiences, lived practices, beliefs, and cultural norms. Course readings thus encompass a mix of secondary but also primary sources, extending to court documents, statutes, law codes, estate records, diaries, wills, travel reports, novels, oral histories, and letters.