The Jack Miller Center will also be sponsoring events around the U.S. in 2012 in honor of the 225th Anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. More information and funding opportunities are HERE.

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Villanova’s Constitution Day: Part 2

Apply for funding for your college or University HERE.

GOVT 395–2

Spring 2012, Christopher Newport University

MWF 1:00, McMurran 360

Matthew D. Mendham, Ph.D.

Office: McMurran 208

Office hours:  Mon. 2:00-3:00, Wed. 3:00-4:00, Friday 2:00-4:30, and by appointment

Phone: 757-594-7066

Email: matthew.mendham@cnu.edu

Course Description

Modern people live in a world which is profoundly different than anything which came before it, resulting from a “relentless revolution” of economic, technological, and cultural change.  These changes have been fiercely debated since the 18^th century, when Europe and America first witnessed dramatic shifts from rural, subsistence agriculture to advanced commerce, finance, and industry.  For instance, many have asked whether, as much of the population left meager existences for solid worldly comfort or even lavish affluence, would citizens become more enlightened, peaceable, and tolerant, or instead more skeptical, self-centered, and incapable of hardship or sacrifice?  Would the lower classes share the new wealth, or be left far behind in degradation, taunted by luxuries they cannot partake of legally?  When people have more commerce with foreign cultures, do they tend to adopt the foreigners’ best attributes, get corrupted by their worst attributes, or are they simply reduced to a materialistic common denominator?  Would more trade and interdependence lead to less war—or instead, increase its scope and destructive potential?  We will pursue such questions with the help of historical, sociological, economic, and political studies, as well as thinkers such as Hume, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Franklin, Jefferson, and Tocqueville—focusing on the 18^th and 19^th centuries but leading up to our own time.

Required Texts

Bring a hard copy of the assigned reading to class every day.  Please do not find online equivalents instead, since the translations are often inadequate, and the different pagination will affect your participation in class and citation in essays.

Franklin, Benjamin.  Autobiography: And Other Writings.  Ed. Ormond Seavey.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.  ISBN: 0199554900.

Muller, Jerry Z.  The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Western Thought.  New York: Anchor, 2003.  ISBN: 0385721668.

Pinker, Steven.  The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.  New York: Viking, 2011.  ISBN: 0670022950.

Tocqueville, Alexis de.  Democracy in America: And Two Essays on America.  Trans. Gerald Bevan.  London: Penguin, 2003.  ISBN: 0140447601.

Additional readings on Blackboard (BB).

Course Requirements and Grading

Attendance and Participation (20% of final grade). Regular attendance is expected of each student (for a course meeting three times per week, up to three unexcused absences is acceptable).  Since this course will be conducted in a seminar style, regular participation is expected.  In the manner of many law schools, each student should be prepared to offer an accurate account of the reading, either as a whole or in various important details.  You should also be prepared with at least one informed question that you would like the professor or the class to discuss.  If you find it difficult to speak in class, you may partially compensate for this by speaking to me about our readings during my office hours. 

Campus Intellectual Life (5% of final grade). You are expected to attend two academic lectures or seminars held on CNU’s campus this semester which are related to politics, philosophy, or economics.  Various opportunities will be mentioned in class, and you should feel free to consult me about other possibilities.  Within a week after the event, email me an informal statement of 3-5 sentences about its content.  You will earn full credit as long as it is clear that you attended two events and attempted to pay attention.  If you cannot attend two events or do not wish to, you may submit a second “Response Essay” instead.

Response Essay (5% of final grade). One essay of 2-3 pages.  It should analyze one assigned reading.  It should display a clear understanding of the reading, usually by focusing on one theme or highlighting a set of related themes.  Although the primary goal is to demonstrate thorough comprehension, the essay should defend a particular interpretation, or offer an evaluative response.  No outside research is expected or recommended, although brief comparisons with other class readings and themes are welcome.  For all essays, specific pages (or section numbers) should be cited, and a formal method of citation should be used.  Each essay is due at the beginning of class.

Comparative Essay (10% of final grade). One essay of 5-6 pages, comparing, contrasting, or synthesizing an element of the assignments for at least two course periods (e.g., contrasting the effects of luxury according to Plato and Hume).  The approach should be similar to the Response Essay, although more interpretive creativity and/or reasoned criticism should be evident.

Research Essay (20% of final grade). One 10-12 page essay on a topic of your choice, drawing from any of the academic disciplines and methods employed in the course (e.g., Political Theory, Political Science, History, Sociology, and Economics).  This should demonstrate understanding of the assigned materials which are relevant to your topic, substantial outside research, creative and rational engagement with the issue, and professional grammar and style.  A topic statement and list of potential sources will be due two weeks before the Research Essay is due.  For further guidance on writing standards and research methods, see my “A Student’s Guide to Academic Writing” (in BB).

Exams (Midterm and Final, each 20% of final grade). Exams will draw from readings, lectures, and discussions.  They will consist of a multiple choice and/or short-answer format, designed to reveal how deeply and clearly the student has grasped the fundamental ideas and arguments studied in the course.  The Final will cover only the second half of the course.

Course and University Policies

Honor code.  The CNU honor code will be enforced: “On my honor, I will maintain the highest standards of honesty, integrity and personal responsibility. This means I will not lie, cheat or steal, and as a member of this academic community, am committed to creating an environment of respect and mutual trust.”  Please contact me with any questions or concerns about the proper use of sources, or about collaboration with other students.

Disabilities. Students with documented disabilities are required to notify the instructor on the first day of class and in private if accommodation is needed. The instructor will provide students with disabilities with all reasonable accommodations, but they are not exempted from fulfilling the normal requirements of the course. Work completed before the student notifies the instructor of his/her disability may be counted toward the final grade at the sole discretion of the instructor.

If you believe that you have a disability, you should make an appointment to see me to discuss your needs. In order to receive an accommodation, your disability must be on record in the Dean of Students’ office, 3^rd Floor David Student Union/DSU (Telephone: 594-7160).

Tutoring. The Center for Academic Success offers free assistance for CNU students in writing, mathematics, science, languages, and other subjects. The Center is located in room 240 of the Trible Library. For more information please visit http://tutors.cnu.edu or phone 594-7684.

Success. If I become concerned about your course performance, attendance, engagement, or well-being, I will speak with you first. I may also submit an Institutional Referral Form that will be received by the Center for Academic Success. Depending upon the nature of my concern it also may be received by Counseling Services. If you are an athlete then Jenny Nuttycombe will receive notice. Someone will contact you to help determine what will help you succeed. Please remember that this is a means for me to support you and help foster your success at CNU.

Course Schedule

W Jan. 11. Introductory comments.

I.  What Is Modern Capitalism, and Does It Have a Future?

F Jan 13. John Lanchester, “How We Were All Misled,” a review of Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World (2011), by Michael Lewis (BB).

M Jan 16. Deirdre N. McCloskey, “The Rhetoric of the Economy and the Polity” (2011), pp. 182-85 (BB).

McCloskey, The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce (2006), pp. 1-8, 14-18, 22-32 (BB).

W Jan 18. Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy, “Moral Views of Market Society” (2007), pp. 285-99, 304-5 (BB).

II.  Economics and Virtue in the Ancient World

F Jan 20. Jerry Muller, The Mind and the Market, “Historical Backdrop: Rights, Righteousness, and Virtue,” pp. 3-19.

M Jan 23. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, chapters 4-5, pp. 50-57 (BB).

Livy, From the Founding of the City, Preface, pp. 3-4 (BB).

Plato, Republic, Book VIII, 543a-555b (BB).

W Jan 25. Republic, Book VIII, 555b-569c; Book IX, 571a-576b.

III.  Debating the Rise of Capitalism in the Enlightenment

F Jan 27. Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees (1723), “The Grumbling Hive,” pp. 23-35; “Remark L” (on luxury), pp. 65-73.

M Jan 30. The Fable of the Bees, “Remark Q” (on frugality), pp. 94-98; “Remark Y” (on conveniencies), pp. 107-9 (BB).

Muller, “Voltaire: ‘A Merchant of a Noble Kind’,” pp. 20-23, 39-44.

W Feb. 1. Muller, “Voltaire,” pp. 23-39, 44-50.

F Feb. 3. Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748), Book III, chapters 1-6, pp. 21-26; IV.4-7, pp. 35-39; V.2-3, pp. 42-43; V.6, pp. 47-48; XV.9, p. 253 (BB). 

M Feb. 6. The Spirit of the Laws, XX.1-5, pp. 338-41; XXI.20, pp. 387-90; XXIII.29, pp. 455-56; XXIV.3-4, pp. 461-62.

David Kettler, review of The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph (1977), by Albert O. Hirschman (BB).

W Feb. 8. David Hume, “Of Refinement in the Arts” (1752, originally titled “Of Luxury”), pp. 268-78 (BB).

F Feb. 10. “Of Refinement in the Arts,” pp. 278-80.

Paul Cheney, review of The Case for the Enlightenment (2005), by John Robertson (BB).

• · Response Essay due.

M Feb. 13. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Discourse on Political Economy” (1755), ¶¶24-78 (BB).

W Feb. 15. Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality (1754), Part II, ¶¶1-34, 55-58 (BB).

F Feb. 17. Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality, Note IX, ¶¶1-3.

Mendham, “Rousseau on Commerce and Politics” (BB).

M Feb. 20. Muller, “Adam Smith: Moral Philosophy and Political Economy,” pp. 51-71.

Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776), I.ii, pp. 25-30; II.ii, ¶¶93-95, pp. 323-24 (BB).

W Feb. 22. The Wealth of Nations, IV.ii, ¶¶1-4, pp. 452-54, ¶¶9-10, pp. 455-56, ¶¶23-45, pp. 463-72; IV.v.b, ¶¶39-43, pp. 538-40.

F Feb. 24. Muller, “Adam Smith,” pp. 72-84.

Smith, The Wealth of Nations, V.i.f, ¶¶46-61, pp. 780-88.

M Feb. 27. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, (1759–1790), I.i.1, ¶1, p. 9; I.iii.3, pp. 61-66; IV.1.7, ¶¶8-10, pp. 181-85 (BB).

W Feb. 29. Theory of Moral Sentiments, V.2, pp. 200-11.

F Mar. 2. Midterm Exam.

M Mar. 5 – F Mar. 9.  Spring recess.

IV.  The Economics of Liberty and Culture in Early America

M Mar. 12. Benjamin Franklin, “The Way to Wealth” (1758), in Autobiography: And Other Writings, pp. 264-74.

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905, 1920), pp. 70-75 (BB).

W Mar. 14. Franklin, Autobiography, Part 1 (1771), pp. 3-4, 11-22, 44-48 (begin or end pp. 4, 11, and 22 at the last paragraph break; begin p. 44 at the first paragraph break).

F Mar. 16. Autobiography, Part 1, pp. 58-63, 67-72 (end p. 63 after second paragraph break; begin p. 67 at last paragraph).

Autobiography, Part 2 (1784), letters from Abel James and Benjamin Vaughan, pp. 72-78.

M Mar. 19. Autobiography, Part 2, pp. 79-95.

Autobiography, Part 3 (1788), pp. 95-100.

• · Comparative Essay due.

W Mar. 21. Franklin, “On the Price of Corn, and the Management of the Poor” (1766), pp. 277-80 (BB).

Thomas Jefferson, Writings (BB).

Letter to John Jay on commerce and sea power (1785), pp. 818-20.

Letter to John Banister, Jr. on European education (1785), pp. 837-40.

Letter to James Madison on property and natural right (1785), pp. 840-43. 

James Madison, “Parties” (1792), pp. 504-5 (BB).

Madison, “Property” (1792), pp. 515-17 (BB).

F Mar. 23. Jefferson, Writings (BB).

Notes on the State of Virginia (1782, 1787), Queries 18-19, pp. 288-91.

President Jefferson to Brother Handsome Lake (1802), pp. 555-57.

Letter to Jean Baptiste Say on Malthus and the New World (1804), pp. 1143-44.

Letter to Benjamin Austin on manufactures (1816), pp. 1369-72.

Letter to John Adams on their prophecies (1816), pp. 1374-77.

M Mar. 26. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 1 (1835), Author’s Introduction, pp. 11-26.

W Mar. 28. Democracy in America, Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 10, from section, “The Position of the Black Race in the United States,” pp. 402-9 (begin 402 at the last full paragraph, which begins, “In almost all the states where slavery has been abolished”; stop on 409 after second full paragraph);

Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 10, section, “A Few Reflections on the Reasons for the Commercial Greatness of the United States,” pp. 470-78. 

F Mar. 30. Democracy in America, Vol. 1, Conclusion, pp. 479-85;

Democracy in America, Vol. 2 (1840), Chapters 8-11, pp. 609-20.

M Apr. 2. Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 2, Chapters 12-17, pp. 621-39.

W Apr. 4. Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 2, Chapters 18-20, pp. 639-48.

Vol. 2, Part 3, Chapter 1, pp. 649-54;

Vol. 2, Part 3, Chapter 7, pp. 675-77.

F Apr. 6. Democracy in America, Vol. 2, Part 4, Chapter 6, pp. 803-9.

Tocqueville, “First Memoir on Pauperism” (1835), pp. 142-48 (BB).

V.  Concluding Reflections on Capitalism, Civilization, and Violence

M Apr. 9. Muller, “Karl Marx: From Jewish Usury to Universal Vampirism,” pp. 166-81, 192-96, 205-7.

• Topic Statement and Sources for Research Essay due.

W Apr. 11. Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2011), pp. xxi-xxvi, 59-81.

F Apr. 13. Better Angels, pp. 81-106.

M Apr. 16. Better Angels, pp. 106-28.

W Apr. 18. Better Angels, pp. 189-200, 222-31, 249-55.

F Apr. 20. Better Angels, pp. 671-96.

M Apr. 23.  Conclusion and review.

Recommended reading: Mendham, “A Student’s Guide to Academic Writing” (BB).

• Final Research Essay due.

Thursday, Apr. 26, 2:00–4:30 p.m. Final Exam.

Select Bibliography

Appleby, Joyce.  The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism.  New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.

Broadie, Alexander, ed.  The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment.  Cambridge UP, 2003.

Bryant, Joseph M.  “The West and the Rest Revisited: Debating Capitalist Origins, European Colonialism, and the Advent of Modernity.”  Canadian Journal of Sociology 31.4 (2006): 403-44.

Clark, Gregory.  A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World.  Princeton UP, 2007.

Clark, Henry C., ed.  Commerce, Culture, and Liberty: Readings on Capitalism before Adam Smith.  Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2003.

Clery, E. J.  The Feminization Debate in Eighteenth-Century England: Literature, Commerce and Luxury.  Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Collier, Paul.  The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It.  Oxford UP, 2007.

Davis, David Brion.  Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

De Vries, Jan.  The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to Present.  Cambridge UP, 2008.

—.  “The Limits of Globalization in the Early Modern World.”  Economic History Review 63.3 (2010): 710-33.

Elias, Norbert.  The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations (1939).  Trans. Edmund Jephcott, revised edn.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2000.

Fleischacker, Samuel.   A Short History of Distributive Justice.  Harvard UP, 2004.

—.  On Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”: A Philosophical Companion.  Princeton UP, 2004.

Force, Pierre.  Self-Interest before Adam Smith: A Genealogy of Economic Science.  Cambridge UP, 2003.

Gartzke, Eric.  “The Capitalist Peace.”  American Journal of Political Science 51.1 (2007): 166-91.

Glaeser, Edward L.  Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.  New York: Penguin, 2011.

Guillén, Mauro F.  “Is Globalization Civilizing, Destructive or Feeble?  A Critique of Five Key Debates in the Social Science Literature.”  Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 235-60.

Hanley, Ryan Patrick.  Adam Smith and the Character of Virtue.  Cambridge UP, 2009.

Kolakowski, Leszek.  Main Currents of Marxism: Its Rise, Growth, and Dissolution.  Trans. P. S. Falla.  3 vol., Oxford UP, 1978.  One-volume edition, New York: Norton, 2005.

Lang, Michael.  “Globalization and Its History.”  Journal of Modern History 78 (2006): 899-931.

Mokyr, Joel.  The Gifts of Athena: Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy.  Princeton UP, 2002.

Nee, Victor, and Richard Swedberg, eds.  The Economic Sociology of Capitalism.  Princeton UP, 2005.

Offer, Avner.  The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950.  Oxford UP, 2006.

Pocock, J. G. A.  Virtue, Commerce, and History: Essays on Political Thought and History, Chiefly in the Eighteenth Century.  Cambridge UP, 1985.

Rahe, Paul A.  Soft Depsotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect.  Yale UP, 2009.

Rasmussen, Dennis C.  The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society: Adam Smith’s Response to Rousseau.  University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2008.

Wootton, David, ed.  Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649–1776.  Stanford UP, 1994.

John Zumbrunnen is at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and has wide-ranging interests in the history of political thought, democratic theory, American political thought, and the philosophy of social science. His recent research works at the intersection of Greek political thought and contemporary democratic theory, seeking in particular to recover ancient texts as resources for our thinking about the place and potential of ordinary citizens in mass democracy. Zumbrunnen’s first book, Silence and Democracy: Athenian Politics in Thucydides’ History,was published by Penn State University Press in May 2008. His second book, Aristophanic Comedy and the Challenge of Democratic Citizenship will be published by the University of Rochester Press/Boydell & Brewer in 2012. His work has appeared inThe American Political Science Review, Political Theory, Polity, History of Political Thought and Political Behavior as well as in various edited volumes.

Summer Fellowship

Jack Miller Center for the Teaching of America’s Founding Principles and History

Position: Summer Fellow

Deadline for Application: March 1, 2012

Internship Dates: May 30- August 15, 2012

Location: Philadelphia, PA

The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History, a nonprofit, nonsectarian, nonpartisan, educational organization, strives to be the leading resource for educators seeking to strengthen the teaching of America’s founding principles and history. The JMC’s goal is to ensure that students receive the best possible education, one that prepares them to be good stewards of our nation’s freedoms and free institutions. The JMC headquarters are located in the Philadelphia suburb of Bala Cynwyd, Pa.

The Summer Fellow will assist in the planning and execution of summer programming at the JMC. Our Summer Institutes give professors and advanced graduate students an opportunity to come together for two intellectually stimulating weeks. Led by renowned scholars, institute fellows participate in seminars on selected topics in American History, political thought, economics, and literature; they also attend professional development workshops for developing engaging courses, the tenure process, book publishing and long-term career advancement.

The Summer Fellow will be expected to perform the following tasks:

- Manage event details to ensure the success of the summer programming.

- Assemble the Summer Institute Reader and other conference materials.

- Correspond with faculty members to arrange transportation.

- Attend weekly JMC staff meetings.

- Complete other office duties and/or projects related to the summer institutes, as needed.

Eligibility and Requirements:

-          Able to perform detail-oriented work with accuracy.

-          Exceptional organization skills.

-          Strong communication skills, both oral and written.

-          Proficiency in MS Excel.

-          Strong academic record, interest in American history and politics. Undergraduate junior, senior, or recent graduate preferred.

-          Ability to work independently and as part of a team.

Learning Objectives:

-          Gain experience working in a national non-profit organization. Due to the small size of our office, the fellow will have the opportunity to learn about various aspects of the organization, including development and programming.

-          Gain experience in event-planning.

-          Deepen understanding of America’s founding principles by attending morning sessions of the summer institutes and networking with scholars.

Internship Details:

-          May 30-August 15, 2012.

-          Full-time position. Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.

-          Must be able to attend all JMC summer events (dates pending). All expenses for these events will be covered by the JMC.

-          $5,000 stipend.

Application Process:

To apply, please email a cover letter and copy of your resume by March 1, 2012 to:

Sam Bellows

Program Officer, Jack Miller Center

sbellows@gojmc.org

(484) 436-2060 (ext. 2070)

After March 1, phone interviews will be scheduled with the finalists for the position. The summer fellow will be selected on or before April 1.

Leon R. Kass, M.D., is the Addie Clark Harding Professor Emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago. Amy A. Kass is Senior Lecturer Emeritus College of the University of Chicago

The Meaning of America is a new curriculum for civic education. It is based on our anthology, What So Proudly We Hail: The American Soul in Story, Speech, and Song (co-edited with Diana Schaub), which takes a literary approach to making citizens—one centering on stories and supplemented by great public speeches and patriotic songs.

How can we produce citizens who are thoughtfully and knowledgeably attached to our country, devoted to its ideals, and eager to live an active civic life? Studying our documents and learning our history can surely help. But stories are, in our view, even better. We need to furnish our imaginations with true stories of American heroes, stories that inspire emulation and the pride of kinship with those who have nobly gone before—the stories of Washington and Lincoln, of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. But we also can benefit greatly from fictional stories that not only inspire but also instruct. By giving us characters to identify with, stories provide concrete mirrors for self-discovery and self-examination. At their best, they shed light on the complexities of our situation and educate the sentiments in a richer and more sophisticated way.

The Meaning of America aims to demonstrate concretely how short stories can shed light on the meaning of American identity, character, and citizenship, and to do so by displaying and promoting learning not through lecturing but through genuine inquiry and searching conversation.

Our first session begins with a discussion of American national identity and why it matters. Sessions 2 through 5 are devoted to the American character: we explore what kind of citizens are likely to emerge in a nation founded on individual rights, equality, enterprise and commerce, and freedom of religion. Sessions 6 through 9 focus on virtues requisite for a more robust citizenry: self-command, law-abidingness, courage, and compassion. Our final session returns to the subject of American identity and its preeminent symbol, the flag, this time with a view to making one out of many.

• National identity and why it matters
  • Edward Everett Hale’s “The Man Without a Country”
• The American character
  • Freedom and Individuality: Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”
  • Equality: Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”
  • Enterprise and Commerce: Mark Twain’s “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”
  • Freedom and Religion: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Maypole of Merry Mount”
• The virtues of civic life
  • Self-Command: Benjamin Franklin’s “Project for Attaining Moral Perfection”
  • Law-Abidingness: Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”
  • Courage and Self-Sacrifice: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s Speech to the Troops before the battle of Gettysburg and George S. Patton’s speech to the troops before D-Day
  • Compassion: Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
• Making one out of many
  • Willa Cather’s “The Namesake”

Materials for each session include online texts of the stories and detailed teacher’s guides, each of which gives information about the author, a plot summary, and a series of thematically arranged questions for thinking about the story and for thinking with the story about larger American themes. These guides go beyond lesson plans intended to help students get the facts straight. Instead, they want to help readers probe the meaning of the story for enduring insights about important American and human matters.

In addition to the teacher’s guides, the curriculum for each session includes a video discussion of the story, conducted by a guest host with the editors of the anthology. These seminars help capture the experience of high-level discourse as participants interact and construct meaning from a classic American text. Shorter clips from the videos are interspersed throughout the study guides, to enable teachers (and students) to see how the questions may be discussed in the spirit of genuine inquiry.

The Meaning of America is designed to allow teachers to integrate lessons into their current classroom curriculum in any way they see fit. The lessons can be used across disciplines—not only for civics classrooms, but also for social studies, language arts, humanities, and other subject areas as well.

An additional bonus is the connection this curriculum has with the new Common Core standards. These standards not only mandate certain critical types of content, such as seminal works in American literature, for all students; they also advocate “close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding.” Literature and social studies teachers looking for models for teaching close reading and analyzing complex texts should find most welcome the headnotes, video segments, and, above all, the guiding questions that accompany each of the ten stories in our curriculum and the associated skills of critical thinking that they encourage and promote.

In brief, The Meaning of America reflects our own long experience in teaching and the principles derived from that practice: be serious; speak up, not down to students; ask them genuine questions; and encourage them in thoughtful reflection and honest conversation. Students treated in this fashion, more often than not, will rise to the occasion and vindicate your trust in their capacity to learn and grow—in mind, in heart, and in soul.

Featured on EDSITEment.com

Website

Biography : Kevin Wagner received his J.D. from the University of Florida and worked as an attorney and member of the Florida Bar with the law firm of Scott, Harris, Bryan, Barra, and Jorgensen in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He returned to the University of Florida five years later to earn an M.A. and Ph.D in political science.

Dr. Wagner has lectured extensively on American Politics and has been cited in many leading newspapers including the New York Times, Boston Globe, New York Newsday, the Dallas Morning News, and the Miami Herald.  He has been featured as the political analyst for CBS 12 in West Palm Beach and on national television including NBC’s “The Today Show.”

Teaching : Public Opinion and American Politics, Political Party and Interest Groups, Research Methods, Media in Politics, Politics in Film and Fiction, Judicial Politics and Florida Politics

Research : Dr. Wagner’s research and teaching interests include judicial politics, political behavior, legislative behavior, American political development, media and politics, and American political thought. The main theme animating his research is an interest in understanding political change in democratic systems including the shifts caused by technology such as the Internet.

His work has been published in leading journals and law reviews including American Review of Politics, Journal of Legislative Studies, and Politics and Policy.

Dr. Wagner has presented at national conferences including the American Political Science Association, the Southern Political Science Association and the Midwest Political Science Association. His recent work focuses on the affects of technology on politics and campaigning and is currently completing a book with Roman and Littlefield Press entitled “Click and Reboot: How the Internet is Revolutionizing American Politics.” His other research focuses in the areas of American Institutions, American Political Development, Judicial Politics,  Political Behavior, and Research Methods

Susan Shell is is currently Chair of the Department of Political Science at Boston College and the author of Kant and the Limits of Autonomy (Harvard University Press, 2009), The Embodiment of Reason: Kant on Spirit, Generation and Community (University of Chicago Press, (1996),The Rights of Reason: A Study of Kant’s Philosophy and Politics(University of Toronto Press, 1980). She is also the co-editor (with Robert Faulkner) of America at Risk: Threats to Liberal Self-Government in an Age of Uncertainty(University of Michigan Press, 2009). She has also written on Rousseau, German Idealism, and selected areas of public policy. She has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard University, and received fellowships from The National Endowment for the Humanities, The American Council of Learned Societies, The Bradley Foundation, the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst and the Radcliffe Institute.