AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

Catalog description

This Political Theory course introduces students to the key traditions of thought that have structured the American political imagination. These traditions include Puritanism, revolutionary thought, abolition, transcendentalism, progressive, libertarianism, labor movement thought, civil rights thought, social conservatism, anti-war thought, liberalism, feminism, and patriotism, among others. Students will have the opportunity to examine these forms of political thought within the historical context from which them emanated, while also evaluating how those arguments persist in the present and structure contemporary American politics. Among the eclectic variety of texts the students will consider are Thomas Paine's call for revolution in "Commonsense," Elizabeth Cady Stanton's assertion of women's rights at Seneca Falls, President Theodore Roosevelt's articulation of American nationalism, President Herbert Hoover's ideas about rugged individualism,” Mario Savio's defense of free speech and student protest, and Stokely Carmichael's arguments for black liberation.