American Political Thought

Catalog description

This course considers the philosophical roots of American political thought and the influence on the contemporary American mind and institutions of the American revolutionaries, constitution-makers, Federalists, Jeffersonians, Jacksonians, Alexis de Tocqueville, examiners of the welfare state, pragmatists, and key current voices. The course also explores challenges and reform of the American political system, via analytical lenses related to human nature, idealism, the Constitution and key Amendments, and nationalism.