History 302-01
Foundations of
American Thought: 1620-1920
Spring 2007
MWF 10:20-11:20
Prof. Seth Cotlar
Office Phone: 370-6297
E-mail: scotlar@willamette.edu
Office Hours: Monday 2:30-3:30, Friday 1:00-3:00, and by appointment
Course Description: This class surveys 300 years of American intellectual activity--from the Puritans of the 1620s to the Pragmatists of the early twentieth century. Along the way we will discuss broad trends in American social thought--Puritanism, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Evangelical Protestantism, Transcendentalism, Social Darwinism, and Pragmatism--as well as a wide range of the most insightful thinkers from America's past. Our conversations will revolve around four key themes that have engaged American intellectuals for centuries:
1) Equality--political, social, economic. Is equality desirable? Why or why not? Is equality achievable? If so, how?
2) Freedom/individualism--to what extent are human beings free agents? What constrains their freedom? What conditions are conducive to freedom and which restrict it? How do we distinguish between freedom and anarchy, liberty and licentiousness?
3) Truth--scientific, spiritual, political. What is the process through which we discern truth? How do we distinguish between truth and error? How should we regard and treat those who disagree with us?
4) Democracy--social, political, economic. To what extent is democracy desirable? If it is desirable, to what extent is it achievable? How could it be achieved and what would its day to day functioning look like?
Teaching Method: Discussion with occasional short lectures to provide context.
Attendance Policy: Because the success of seminars depend largely upon the participation of the students, attendance is mandatory. More than two absences (for any reason) will detract severely from one's participation grade.
Plagiarism Policy: Students are expected to do their own work and to provide proper attribution when using someone elseÕs words or ideas. The instructor will enforce the universityÕs strict policy regarding academic dishonesty.
Evaluation: Students will be evaluated on the basis of:
--three synthetic essays (20% each)
--participation in class discussion (20%)
--7 response papers (20%)
Definitions:
--The synthetic essays will be 1500-2000 words (6-8 pages double spaced) and will require you to identify and expand upon a significant intellectual transformation that occurred during the time periods we are studying. There will be no need to do any outside reading to fulfill this assignment; rather, your task will be to provide close and creative readings of the primary sources on the syllabus. I will provide more detailed guidance when the time comes.
--The response papers should be informal (yet thoughtful) responses to the reading. They should be no less than one single-spaced page. Think of them as your way of setting the agenda for class discussion by letting me know what you think is interesting or important about the reading. Sometimes I will provide a specific prompt for these responses and sometimes it will be up to you to choose your focus. Despite the informal nature of the assignment, these responses should not just be your gut reactions (i.e. "this reading was boring" or "this reading was great"). I want you to mix your labor with these texts, developing one or two significant insights as fully as you can. Your response should open with a succinct statement assessing the central argument and historical significance of the dayÕs reading and then go on to ask questions, make connections to other readings for the course, or do anything else which reveals a deep engagement with the readings. Note: responses are due via-e-mail by 8am the morning of class so that I have time to read them before our discussion.
--The health of any seminar depends upon the active participation (both listening and speaking) of each person. I will be sending out reading guides a few days before each class. These guides will pose questions that we will take up in our class discussion. Please come to class with a few ideas and relevant page references written down that you can use to respond to these questions. We will also be doing group work frequently in this class, and your participation in those small group discussions will be an important way in which you can contribute to the learning of your fellow students. Finally, there is a class listserv that I will be using primarily for administrative purposes, but which you should feel free to use as a discussion board.
--The three major writing assignments will require a thorough and sophisticated understanding of a wide range of thinkers. Since we will be encountering at least 35 American thinkers during this semester, it is imperative that you keep track of both their central ideas and your interpretations of those ideas. While this is not a requirement of the class, I highly recommend that you keep a reading journal. It will make it much easier to complete those major writing assignments if you write out a brief summary of every primary source we read and identify how it connects to the central themes of the course. If you do this well, I promise that it will be of great use as you write your synthetic essays.
Required Books: [All
books can be purchased at the Willamette Bookstore.]
1) David Hollinger and Charles Capper, The American Intellectual Tradition, 5th ed., vol 1.
2) Lewis
Menand, The Metaphysical Club
3) W.E.B.
DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (Dover
Thrift Edition)
Reference works which will be of assistance:
Richard Fox and James Kloppenberg, eds., A Companion to American Thought (REF)
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (REF)
Dictionary of the History of Ideas (REF)
Gilder Lehrman on-line textbook of American History: http://www.gliah.uh.edu/database/hyper_titles.cfm
CLASS SCHEDULE
Readings followed by (HC) are in the Hollinger/Capper reader. If a reading is followed by an (R) then it is on electronic reserve in the library. If it is followed by (Library) then it is available in a journal to which the library has electronic access. The remainder of the readings are available on the web and I have supplied hyper-links to them. Students are expected to bring the readings to class with them every day and to obtain copies of the readings well ahead of time in case of unforeseen complications. I highly recommend that you get a three ring binder to keep all of the supplemental readings organized. [Note: each reserve reading is listed under the authorÕs name and a shortened title, i.e. Foster--Solitary Way.]
M Jan 15—Introduction to the central themes and questions of the course.
W Jan 17--What does it mean to study the history of ideas?
Writing: 500 word response paper due in class--What is an idea? What role do ideas play in history?
Reading: 1)
Gordon Wood, "Intellectual History and the Social Sciences," in New
Directions in American Intellectual History, John Higham, ed.,
(1979), 27-41 (R)
F Jan 19—Puritan conceptions of God, sin, and grace
Reading: 1)
Perry Miller, ÒThe Augustinian Strain of Piety,Ó in The New England Mind
(1939), 3-34. (R)
2) John Cotton, (HC, 16-27)
M Jan 22-- Order and Love in the City on the Hill: The Puritan Social Vision
Writing: Group
A memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Stephen Foster, Their Solitary Way (1971), 10-64. (R)
2) John Winthrop (HC, 3-15)
W Jan 24-- Playing out the Contradictions of Puritan Theology: Works, Grace, and the Antinomian Crisis
Writing: Group B memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1)
Marilyn Westerkamp, "Puritan Patriarchy and the Problem of
Revelation," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 23 (Winter
1993), 571-595. (Library)
2) Anne Hutchinson (HC, 28-38)
F Jan 26—The Emergence of Individualism from within Puritanism.
Writing: Group C memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Cotton Mather (HC, 51-64)
M Jan 29—From Puritanism to Enlightenment
Reading: 1)
Landsman, ÒProvincial
Enlightenments,Ó in From Colonials to Provincials (1997), 57-91. (R)
2) Excerpts from John LockeÕs Essay
on Education (R)
W Jan 31-- The First Great Awakening—the revival of piety in a rationalizing world
Writing: Group A memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Alan Heimert, ÒIntroduction,Ó in The Great Awakening (1967), xiii-xliii. (R)
2) Jonathan Edwards (HC, 65-92)
F Feb 2-- Virtue is its own reward: Benjamin Franklin and secular conceptions of virtue.
Writing: Group B memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Norman Fiering, "Benjamin Franklin and the Way to Virtue," American Quarterly, v. 30, no. 2 (Summer 1978), 199-223. (Library)
2) Benjamin Franklin (HC, 95-111)
M Feb 5—The Politics of Enlightenment: Filmerean Patriarchy vs. Lockean Natural Rights
Reading: 1)
Excerpts from Robert Filmer, Patriarcha (e-mail)
2) Excerpts from John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (R)
W Feb 7-- The complexities of "Liberty" in the Eighteenth Century.
Writing: Group C memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Bernard Bailyn, "Power and Liberty: A Theory of Politics," in The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967), 55-93. (R)
2) John Adams (HC, 112-122)
F Feb 9-- Intellectual rationales for revolution.
Reading: 1) Excerpts from Thomas Paine, Common Sense (R)
2) The Declaration of Independence (HC, 131-134)
M Feb 12— Stitching the fabric of a new nation: Federalists and anti-Federalists debate the new American polity.
Writing: Group A memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Alexander Hamilton, Brutus, and James
Madison (HC, 135-161)
W Feb 14-- Democracy and the Constitution
Writing: Group B memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Gordon Wood, ÒInterests and Disinterestedness in
the Making of the Constitution,Ó in Beyond Confederation (1987),
69-109 (R)
2) Daniel Walker Howe, ÒThe Political Psychology of The Federalist,Ó William
and Mary Quarterly 44 (1987), 485-509. (Library)
F Feb
16— Another vision of democracy in the era of the Constitution
Reading: 1) Excerpts from William Manning, ÒThe Key of Libberty.Ó
(1797) (R)
2) Seth Cotlar, ÒDebating the Role of the Public in a
Representative Democracy,Ó Chapter 5 of In PaineÕs Absence: The Rise and
Fall of Trans-Atlantic Radicalism in the Early American Republic
(under contract, University of Virginia Press). (e-mail)
M Feb 19— What does it really mean to say everyone is created equal? Exploring the social implications of revolutionary egalitarianism.
Writing: Group C memo due by 9am
Reading: 1)
Exchange between John Adams, Abigail Adams, and James Sullivan in 1776
regarding women's rights (3 pages). (R)
2) Judith Sargent Murray, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson (HC, 162-194)
W Feb 21— Lecture on the transition to the 19th century
Synthetic Essay on Part 1 due Wednesday Feb. 21 in class.
F Feb 23—Rational religion in the early republic
Writing: Group A memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Thomas Jefferson, (HC, 195-199)
2) Excerpts from Thomas Paine, The
Age of Reason (R)
3) William Ellery Channing, (HC, 207-219)
M Feb 26—The resurgence of faith in the new republic
Writing: Group B memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Jean Matthews, "Christianizing the Republic," in Toward a New Society: American Thought and Culture, 1800-1830 (1991), 26-46. (R)
2) Nathaniel William Taylor and
Charles Grandison Finney (HC,
220-246)
W Feb 28—Northern democrats writing their own histories and making their own futures
Writing: Group C memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1)
Marvin Myers, "Venturous
Conservative: On Tocqueville's Image of the Democrat," in The
Jacksonian Persuasion (1957), 33-56. (R)
2) George Bancroft, (HC 286-294)
F March 2—no class
M March 5-- Transcendentalism and Emersonian individualism
Reading: 1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, (HC,
342-367)
2) John Updike, "Emersonianism," in Odd Jobs (1991), 148-168. (R)
W March 7— Thoreau and the individualist critique of mass democracy
Reading: 1) Henry David Thoreau, (HC, 403-416)
F March 9-- Southern conceptions of history, democracy, and progress
Reading: 1)
Genovese, The SlaveholdersÕ Dilemma, 10-75 (R)
M March 12— Southern conceptions of history, democracy, and progress (contÕd)
Writing: Group A memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) John C. Calhoun and George Fitzhugh (HC, 442-451, 465-475)
W March 14— Antebellum advocates of equality
Reading: 1)
William Lloyd Garrison and Sarah Grimke (HC, 255-285)
F March 16— Contesting the case for womenÕs equality, north and south
Writing: Group B memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Catharine Beecher, (HC, 311-324)
2) Louisa McCord (HC, 452-464)
M March 19-- African-Americans debate their place in the American republic
Reading: 1) Martin Delaney and Frederick Douglass (HC, 476-506)
W March 21— The Republican/Lincolnian vision of American democracy
Writing: Group C memo due by 9am
Reading: 1) Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, (11-39 R)
2) Henry C. Carey and Abraham Lincoln (HC, 325-335, 507-522)
F March 23--No class.
Second synthetic essay due by 5pm.
SPRING BREAK
PART 3: 1860-1920
M April 2--The Intellectual Legacy of the Civil War
Reading: 1) Menand, 3-69
2) Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., "The Soldier's Faith" (1895) http://people.virginia.edu/~mmd5f/holmesfa.htm
W April 4-- The Young William James
Reading: 1) Menand, 73-148
F April 6—Charles Peirce
Reading: 1) Menand 151-200
M April 9-- Charles Peirce (contÕd)
Reading: 1) Menand 200-232
W April 11—The young John Dewey and the age of Social
Darwinism
Reading: 1) Menand, 235-284
2) William Graham Sumner, "Sociology," (1881), 10 pages (R)
F April
13—John Dewey, Jane Addams, and the path out of Social Darwinism
Writing: Group A memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Menand, 285-333
2) Jane Addams, "A
Modern Lear," (1896), http://douglassarchives.org/adda_a01.htm
M April 16— Pragmatism as a Philosophical System
Writing: Group B memo due by 9am.
Reading: 1) Menand 337-375
2) William James, "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings," in Talks to Teachers (1899) http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/jcertain.html
3) William James, "What Makes a Life Significant," in Talks
to Teachers (1899) http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/jsignificant.html
W April 18—No class SSRD
F April 20-- The Political Vision of Pragmatism
Writing: Group C memo due by 9am
Reading: 1) Menand, 409-442
2) John Dewey, ÒSearch for the Public,Ó in The Public and Its Problems (1927) pp. 3-36. (R)
M April 23-- DuBois and the merger of pluralism and
pragmatism.
Reading: 1) Menand, 377-408
2) David Blight and Robert Gooding Williams, Introduction to The
Souls of Black Folk, 1-30 (R)
3) W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk, v-vi, 1-7
W April 25-- DuBois and Washington's contrasting visions of
the racial future
Reading: 1) DuBois 9-67
2) Booker T. Washington, "Atlanta Compromise Speech" (1895) http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/39/
F April 27—Du Bois and the sociology of race.
Reading: 1) DuBois 69-140
M April 30-- Paths toward a more just society?
Reading: 1) DuBois 141-165
2) Randolph Bourne, ÒTrans-National AmericaÓ (1916) (http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/rbannis1/AIH19th/Bourne.html)
Tuesday May 8--Third synthetic essay due by noon.