Posts Tagged ‘Alexander Hamilton’

Complete Federalist Papers Audio

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

A complete audio recording of the Federalist Papers is now available for free online through Americana Phonic. These high quality recordings by Michael Scherer are also available through Apple’s iTunes store. Listen to one paper at a time (85 separate recordings). The combined recording amounts to 20 hours and 30 minutes of audio.

Title page of the first printing of the Federa...

Jefferson's Federalist Papers

Listen to a sample here.

In addition to the Federalist Papers, Americana Phonic.com has recordings of the U.S. Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and more.

___

From americanaphonic.com:

The year is 1787. America is a fledgling confederation of 13 colonies. A new Constitution has been written in Philadelphia, to replace the Articles of Confederation. Do you think that this new constitution should become the supreme law of the land? Vote: YES or NO The Federalists want you to vote yes. As America roils with intense debate on this fateful issue, a series of essays begin to appear in three New York newspapers, written by the mysterious persona Publius. These essays urge the American people to ratify the constitution, explaining and defending it in detail. After their debut in New York, the essays subsequently appeared in newspapers across the nation. We know today that Publius was actually three different people: Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and James Madison. Their painstaking efforts to explain and promote the United States Constitution have become a primary source for the interpretation and understanding of the highest law of the United States of America. Thomas Jefferson called the Federalist Papers the “best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written.” They are available in their entirety on this site, as 85 separate audio narrations.

See the complete Federalist Papers Audio.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in American Founding, News, Primary Documents, What's Hot | No Comments »

Pathway to the Founding

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Jack Miller Center’s

Pathway to the Founding Online Essays

The Jack Miller Center has begun collecting online introductory essays and book recommendations for topics and themes that broaden understanding of the American Founding. These essays are designed as introductions to the intellectual and political life of American Statesman, our U.S. Constitutional heritage, and the ancient and modern thinkers the Founders drew upon when designing our system of free government.

According to Mike Ratliff, President of the Jack Miller Center, “These essays are intended to convey the richness of the American and Western political tradition, while at the same time presenting often complex ideas in accessible form.  The JMC staff has assembled a stellar list of contributors from many of our country’s leading scholars, and we look forward to seeing their reflections on the ideas and questions of perennial importance to life of a free society.” The essays will appear periodically on the Jack Miller Center website over the next year. A sample of featured essays includes:

Abraham Lincoln (Allen Guelzo, Gettysburg College)

Montesquieu (Thomas Pangle, University of Texas)

Thomas Jefferson (Jeremy Bailey, University of Houston)

James Madison (George Thomas, Claremont-McKenna College)

Adam Smith (Sandra Peart, Jepson School of Leadership)

The American Presidency (Benjamin Kleinerman, Michigan State University)

Benjamin Franklin (Lorraine Pangle, University of Texas)

Alexander Hamilton (Peter McNamara, Utah State University)

David Hume (Scott Yenor, Boise State University)

John Adams (Richard Samuelson, California State San Bernardino)

Publius, Federalist Papers (James Stoner, Louisiana State University)

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Miller Fellows News, News, PAthway Essay, Professors, What's Hot | No Comments »

Alexander Hamilton GPS

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

A Jack Miller Center Pathway Essay

Cropped version of Thomas Jefferson, painted b...

Hamilton

“Alexander Hamilton: First Secretary of the Treasury; Soldier, Orator, Statesman, Champion of Constitutional Union, Representative Government and National Integrity.”

So reads the inscription at the base of the James Earle Fraser statue of Alexander Hamilton that stands on the south patio of the Treasury building in Washington D.C.  The statue portrays a young, vigorous, and confident Hamilton.  It is a fitting tribute to the complex and versatile man who worked so tirelessly for his adopted country.

On the more conspicuous north patio fronting Pennsylvania Avenue stands another Fraser statue, this one of Thomas Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary, Albert Gallatin.  The story behind these two statutes is told by Stephen Knott in his revealing book, Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002).  They are part of the larger story of Hamilton’s twentieth century fall from grace.  The statues are representative of the ideological battle that led to Hamilton’s marginalization in the public and scholarly eye as an allegedly authoritarian and militaristic presence at the Founding who was, so the story goes, finally vanquished by the Jeffersonian victory in 1800.  Knott shows how Progressives and Democrats, including FDR, not only sided with Jefferson but also saw the political merits of using Jefferson as a unifying national symbol.  Knott traces Hamilton’s ups and downs in the nineteenth century as well, making his work a much needed companion piece to Merrill Peterson’s The Jefferson Image in the American Mind.

Knott believes that Hamilton has been very unfairly treated since the first Jeffersonian ascendancy.  Only during the period of Republican dominance after the Civil War did Hamilton come close to receiving his due.  Knott exposes as false many of the still prevalent “myths” surrounding Hamilton, such as the claim he once referred to the people as a “great beast.”  Knott acknowledges that Hamilton was a controversial figure, whose views on democracy in particular were out of step with his own time and with ours, but suggests that “beneath his highly colored reputation, Hamilton was the most forward looking of the framers responsible in many ways for creating the innovative institutions that have flourished for over two centuries.”

Knott notes the positive trend in recent Hamilton scholarship.  This trend really began in the 1970s with fine and influential books by Gerald Stourzh and especially Forrest McDonald.  Ron Chernow’s massive 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin Press, 2004) represents a splendid culmination of this trend.  Chernow masterfully tells the story of Hamilton’s prodigious accomplishments as Treasury Secretary, stressing Hamilton’s grasp of the essentials of a modern financial system.  Chernow may understate the extent to which Jefferson, hardly a Luddite, had a relatively coherent alternative vision of “capitalism” but he makes a compelling case that Hamilton’s grasp of economic fundamentals far exceeded his peers and rivals.  Chernow’s biography is notable also for the way in which in brings to life Hamilton the private man.  The Hamilton who was so warmly loved and admired by family and friends was polished in his manners, generous in his habits, and supremely engaging in company.  Chernow also provides a poignant portrait of Elizabeth, Hamilton’s devoted wife, who survived him by some fifty years.

Karl Walling’s impressive Republican Empire: Alexander Hamilton on War and Free Government (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1999) extends earlier work on Hamilton’s republicanism by Stourzh and Harvey Flaumenhaft.  Walling dispels the myth of Hamilton the monarchist by constructing a republican constitutional spectrum with “vigilance” and “responsibility” as its two poles.  Jeffersonian republicanism stressed popular vigilance as the key to the preservation of liberty, whereas Hamilton’s republicanism stressed the need create institutions that enhanced responsibility, the placing of power in one or a few hands to harness ambition and to increase accountability.   Walling focuses on Hamilton’s realization that a free government must be “fit for war” as well as “safe for liberty.”  On a related point, Walling shows, in his account of Hamilton’s strategic thinking in the late 1790s, that Hamilton’s assessment of the French threat was reasonable, thereby providing a rebuttal to the longstanding charge that Hamilton was a dangerous militarist who used the specter of France to amass an army that he intended to use to suppress Jeffersonian democracy.

No account of Hamilton would be complete without mention of the event that seems so incredible today: Aaron Burr, the sitting Vice-President of the United States, killing Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury, in a duel.  It was once fashionable to discuss the duel in terms of Hamilton’s erratic personality or his fragile sense of self or even his death wish, all of which were traceable to his disordered childhood.  Joanne Freeman’s highly engaging Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the Early Republic (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001) opens up a new and persuasive alternative.  The duel should not surprise us.  Duels were still common at the time and especially among military men such as Hamilton and Burr.  They were part of an elaborate culture of honor that held a gentleman’s reputation to be something worth preserving at all costs, including the risk of a duel.  Hamilton and Burr followed precisely the rituals of an affair of honor and when they could not resolve the matter to each other’s satisfaction they resorted to dueling pistols.  The goal of each party in such an affair was to prove his honor by showing his willingness to risk all.  It was not necessary to kill.  If there was a surprise in the duel at Weehawken, it is that Burr seems to have deliberately chosen to kill Hamilton.

These new perspectives on Hamilton have not only given us a new and more accurate account of Hamilton but they have also made possible a richer and more nuanced approach to the history and the political thought of the Founding period.  Hamilton will likely remain a controversial figure but there is no longer any excuse for using him as a mere villainous foil in the story of the rise of American democracy.

Peter McNamara teaches political theory at Utah State University. He specializes in early modern and American political thought.  He is the author of Political Economy and Statesmanship: Smith, Hamilton and the Foundation of the Commercial Republic and the editor of The Noblest Minds: Fame, Honor and the American Founding, and, most recently (with Louis Hunt), Liberalism, Conservatism and Hayek’s Idea of Spontaneous Order.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Essays of Interest, News, PAthway Essay, Professors, What's Hot | No Comments »

Founding Principles: Video Transcript

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Founding Principles

Each of us can come up with our own list of the great ideas that give life to American political and economic institutions.  However, we may be surprised at the similarity of our lists.  That reflects the power exerted by the ideas debated with such intensity by our founders.  Certainly there would be differences in our lists, just as the founders differed. However, over the past five years, we have talked with hundreds of profound students of American history, politics and literature.  Whenever we have paused during Miller Summer Institutes or other programs to write such a list, the result has been a short list of seven to twelve great ideas.  We hope you will reflect on the great principles cited that follow and perhaps inspire you to draw up your own list.  Few exercises can be of more value to you as a citizen of our great nation.

In “A Defense of American Constitutions” (1787) John Adams, on the individual’s right to own private property:

“The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.  If “Thou shall not covet” and “Thou shall not steal” were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.”

Alexander Hamilton, (Federalist #71, 1788) on the separation of powers in government:

“The same rule which teaches the propriety of a partition between the various branches of power, teaches us likewise that this partition ought to be so contrived as to render the one independent of the other…  The representatives of the people, in a popular assembly, seem sometimes to fancy that they are the people themselves, and betray strong symptoms of impatience and disgust at the least sign of opposition from any other quarter,  as if the exercise of its rights, by either the executive or judiciary, were a breach of their privilege and an outrage to their dignity.”

Thomas Paine, in Common Sense (1776), on the rule of law:

“But where say some is the king of America?  I’ll tell you, he reigns above and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of Great Britain.  Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter;  let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the Word of God;  let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king.  For as an absolute governments the king is law,  so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”

George Washington, (Letter to the Hebrew Congregation, Newport, 1790), on the freedom of religion:

“The Citizens of the United States of American have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy:  a policy worthy of imitation.  All possess alike liberty of conscious and immunities of citizenship.  It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoy the exercise of their inherent national gifts.  For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under it’s protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

Abraham Lincoln, (“Reply to Senator Douglas, Chicago” 1858) on the principal of equality:

“We run our memory back over the pages of history for about eighty-two years,  and we … find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers;  they were iron men;  they fought for the principal that they were contending for…  We have-besides these, men descended by blood from our ancestors-among us, perhaps half our people, who are not descendants at all of these men…  but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal;” and then they feel that … is the father of all moral principal in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration…”

Regarding individual liberty, George Washington said:

“If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

And, the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances…  The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated… No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…  In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury…”

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Donor News, Uncategorized, What's Hot | No Comments »

James Madison GPS

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

A Jack Miller Center Pathway Essay

By George Thomas

Portrait of James Madison, one of the authors ...

James Madison

Dubbed the “father of the Constitution” by the historian Charles Jared Ingersoll in 1825, James Madison resisted the title. Yet it is by this title that Madison remains best known. While biographies of the “Founding Fathers” continue to meet the public’s appetite —there have been new biographies of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton in recent years—books on Madison, especially those that break into the popular fold, tend to be historical studies of the early years of the Republic. Madison has become inseparable from the nation he helped bring into being.  Indeed, when the late Marvin Meyers gathered together the first comprehensive one volume edition of Madison’s writings in the early 1970s, he titled it The Mind of the Founder. And what better way to get at the bookish Madison than by reading.

First published in 1971, but brought out in paperback by the University of Virginia Press in 1990, Ralph Ketcham’s James Madison: A Biography is the best one volume biography of Madison’s life. As an early editor of the Madison Papers when the project was housed at the University of Chicago, Ketcham had access to material that was not available to earlier biographers. (Material on Madison continues to come out from the University of Virginia Press under the editorship of J.C.A. Stagg.) Ketcham’s biography not only traces Madison’s career, it gives us a sense of the man. As Madison said of his early years in Virginia under the study of Donald Robertson, who introduced him to thinkers like Montaigne and Montesquieu, “all that I have been in life I owe largely to that man.” It also captures a side of Madison that is less rarely on display (including a portrait of the beautiful Dolley Madison, who was introduced to Madison by Aaron Burr, and has also come into her own with a recent biography A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor.) The slight and frail man dressed in republican black had an impish sense of humor and was a lively presence among friends.

This should come as no great surprise. Madison led the charge in revolutionary Virginia to establish religious liberty, was the most important mind at the Constitutional Convention, joined with Alexander Hamilton to offer the great defense of the Constitution in The Federalist, crafted the Bill of Rights, and was behind the creation of political parties that helped bring about what Thomas Jefferson dubbed “the revolution of 1800”—the first peaceful transfer of power in history. To be so influential, we would expect a certain amount of persuasive character. Witnessing Madison’s exchanges with the gifted orator Patrick Henry in the Virginia ratifying convention, John Marshall called Madison the most eloquent speaker of his age. And yet, it is this very sweep that has often led to charges that Madison was inconsistent and vacillating—a lesser figure who fluctuated between the pull of Hamilton and Jefferson.  To follow Madison through this tumultuous period, one could do no better than Lance Banning’s The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic.  Banning’s book has the great virtue of reconstructing Madison’s thought from Madison’s preoccupations. The result is a Madison that is at once a skillful politician and a great thinker—he is neither Jefferson’s, nor Hamilton’s second.

If Madison was a masterful politician, he has not been seen as a great president. He left office extraordinarily popular, but history has been stern. Madison’s temperate claims of executive power make for intriguing reading against such judgments. The best history of his presidency remains Henry Adams’s History of the United States During the Administrations of James Madison first published in 1890. Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams and great grandson of John Adams, has an overwrought sense of irony in his treatment of Madison. He is a New Englander who on occasion seems to think of Madison, like the first other four presidents who were not Adamses, as one of those damned Virginians. And, to be sure, many modern historians have offered a more rounded and sympathetic account of Madison’s presidency—even insisting the War of 1812, for all of its faults, helped sustain American independence for the long haul. Still, Adams’s great history is worth reading as it offers a detailed account of Madison’s presidency—coming in at over a 1,000 pages—and is itself one of the first great works of history written in the United States.

Madison lived beyond his contemporaries as the “last of the founders.” This from the frail youth who just after graduating from Princeton wrote that he did not expect “a long or healthy life.” Well, he lived until 1835 and witnessed the development of his handiwork for nearly another two decades. The nation returned to the issues of the 1780s and 1790s in debates over the national bank, the tariff, slavery and, most of all, nullification. Charges of inconsistency returned to haunt Madison and, a lifelong addict to politics and newspapers, Madison himself returned to the fray. Drew McCoy’s Last of the Fathers: James Madison and the Republican Legacy takes up Madison the elder statesmen, weaving together Madison’s late career with his early career in a wonderfully illuminating fashion. In McCoy’s able hands, we get a finely textured history that also happens to be a deeper education in Madison’s thought and the nature of the republic he helped birth.

Above all, Madison is an original constitutional thinker. Jack Rakove’s Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution is about the ideas and interests that framed the Constitution, but it is written with Madison as its central figure. Rakove captures what it means to make a constitution that is intended to endure for ages to come, but also how this begins from historical problems. When it comes to original meaning and its current application, Rakove offers somewhat ambivalent answers. But, following Madison, Rakove turns to the right questions, which are much broader than our unfortunate preoccupation with the Supreme Court and constitutional law. There is almost certainly an important lesson in the fact that Madison, our great constitutional thinker, was not a lawyer.

If you do not have the time—or is it the virtue?—for a longer book, or want only one book on Madison, you might pick up Rakove’s very brief James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic. For the republican side of Madison, you might try Colleen Sheehan’s James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Government. It’s a bit academic, but is engaging and readable; it even ends with a tribute to that great Madisonian—Harry Potter. If you are more adventurous, read Madison himself. He is imminently readable. You might be surprised how much sense and logic is packed into his short essays, and how relevant they remain for thinking about our Constitution and our politics.

George Thomas is Associate Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and the author of The Madisonian Constitution (Johns Hopkins).

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Essays of Interest, Fellows Publications, PAthway Essay, What's Hot | No Comments »

American Government, Berry College

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

GOV 211-A, D, & E: American National Government (3.0)

Fall 2006

MWF                                                                           Office: Evans 112B

EVA                                                                            Office Hours: 10:30-12:30 MWF,

Dr. Eric C. Sands                                                         9:30-11:30 TR, and by appointment

Telephone: 238-7896 (w)                                            Email: esands@berry.edu

378-3125 (h)

Course Description:

This course provides an introduction to the ideas and institutions that constitute American political life.

Textbooks:

Ceaser, O’Toole, Bessette and Thurow, American Government: Origins, Institutions and    Public Policy.

Nichols and Nichols, Readings in American Government.

Kingdon, America the Unusual.

Additional readings can be found on the internet, with the web addresses provided in the footnotes.

Purpose:

This course is intended to familiarize students with the basic principles, institutions, and processes of American government.  Over the course of the semester, students will learn how to think critically about different facets of American politics and American political life, and will be able to contribute to arguments concerning the perennial issues and problems that the American regime confronts.

Evaluation Components and Grading Scale:

Midterm Exam – 25%

Two Papers (5 pages each) – 15% each

Final Exam – 30%

Class Participation, Reading Quizzes, and Attendance – 15%

Grading will be based on a ten-point scale (100-94 A, 93-90 A-, 89-87 B+, 86-84 B, 80-83 B-, etc.).  Please note that the failure to turn in an assignment will result in a grade of “F” for the course.

Attendance:

Attendance is mandatory.  Every unexcused absence will result in a lowering of your class participation grade.  Students missing three consecutive classes will be referred to the Office of the Registrar.

Academic Integrity:

The course is covered by the Berry College policy on academic integrity (see the Berry College Catalogue, p. 27, and the Student Handbook, pp. 15-16).  If it is determined that you have engaged in academic dishonesty, you will receive an “F” for the course. If, after reading the Berry College policy, you have questions regarding what constitutes academic dishonesty it is your responsibility to confer with me to seek clarification.

Accommodation Statement:

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodation in this course are encouraged to contact the Academic Support Center in Krannert Room 329 (ext. 4080) as soon as possible to ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.

Schedule of Class Sessions

Week 1 (August 21) – Introduction: What founders do and the characteristics of liberal democracy.

Readings:

Selection from Plutarch’s “Life of Lycurgus”[1]

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., “Harrison Bergeron” (N)

Week 2 (August 28) – The Concept of Founding: The Declaration of Independence, what constitutes a people, and the fundamental regime principles – liberty, equality, self-government and citizenship.

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 2 (pp. 32-46)

Federalist 2[2]

The Declaration of Independence (Ceaser, pp. 535-537)

Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”[3]

FDR, “State of the Union Message of 1944”[4]

Week 3 (September 4) – The Founding: the small republic argument vs. the large republic argument; or, Federalists vs. Anti-Federalists.

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 2 (pp. 46-61)

Centinel, “The Small Republic Argument” (N)

Federalist 10, 51 (N)

Thomas Jefferson, “Against Manufacturing” (N)

Alexander Hamilton, “Report on Manufacturing” (N)

Week 4 (September 11) – A Written Constitution: Limited Government and a Bill of Rights

Readings:

“Selections from the Federal Convention” (N)

U.S. Constitution (Ceaser, pp. 539-559)

Federalist 49 (N)

Jefferson and Madison, “Exchange on the Binding of Generations” (N)

Week 5 (September 18) – Representative Democracy and Federalism

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 4

Federalist 39, 45, 46, 63, 71 (See Footnote 2)

United States v. Lopez (1995)[5]

Week 6 (September 25) – The Role of Religion in Political Life

Readings:

Virginia Declaration of Rights[6]

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, 1789[7]

James Madison, “Memorial and Remonstrance”[8]

Thomas Jefferson to Danbury Baptist Association[9]

Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. II, part 2, chapters 2-3, 8-15[10]

Week 7 (October 2) – Political Parties, Campaigns and Elections

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 7

2000 Election Data[11]

James Bryce, “Why Great Men Are Not Chosen Presidents” (N)

Martin Diamond, “The Electoral College and the American Idea of Democracy” (N)

James Ceaser, “Political Parties and Presidential Ambition” (N)

Week 8 (October 9) – Elections and Voting Behavior: How Do People Think about Politics?  Why Do People Vote?  Why Do People Vote the Way They Do?

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 5, 8

David Brooks, “One Nation, Slightly Divisible”[12]

Blake Hurst, “The Plains vs. the Atlantic”[13]

Midterm Exam

Week 9 (October 16) – The Presidency

Readings:

Hamilton, “On the Presidency” (N)

Ceaser, chapters 11, 14

Ceaser, et. al., “The Rise of the Rhetorical Presidency” (N)

Week 10 (October 23) – Congress

Readings:

Ceaser, chapters 10, 12

Hamilton and Madison, “On Congress” (N)

Woodrow Wilson, “The Need for Cabinet Government in the United States” (N)

Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952) (N)

William F. Connelly, “In Defense of Congress” (N)

William F. Connelly, “Congressional Government and Separation of Powers” (N)

Week 11 (October 30) – The Judiciary

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 13

Federalist 78 (See Footnote 2)

Marbury v. Madison (1803) (N)

Brutus, “The Problem of Judicial Review” (N)

Jefferson, “Against Judicial Review” (N)

McCulluch v. Maryland (1819) (N)

Week 12 (November 6) – Judiciary and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 16

William Brennan, “Constitutional Interpretation” (N)

Robert Bork, “Testimony Before the Senate Judiciary Committee” (N)

Roe v. Wade (1973) (N)

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey (1992) (N)

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) (N)

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) (N)

Week 13 (November 13) – American Exceptionalism: Are We Different?

Readings:

Kingdon, America the Unusual

Week 14 (November 20) – Foreign Policy

Readings:

Ceaser, chapter 17

Pontuso, “American Foreign Policy and the Victory of Liberal Democracy” (N)

Huntington, “Clash of Civilizations”[14]

Week 15 (November 27) – Old Fears and New Horizons: Tocqueville and Fukuyama

Readings:

Alexis de Tocqueville, Selections from Democracy in America (N)

Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone” (N)

Please note: We will not hold classes Sept. 4, 2006, in observance of Labor Day. Classes after 2 p.m. on October 6, 2006, are suspended for observance of Mountain Day.  October 16-17, 2006, is Fall Weekend and no classes are held.  No classes are held Nov. 22-24, 2006, in observance of Thanksgiving.

[1] http://classics.mit.edu//Plutarch/lycurgus.html

[2] http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa02.htm

[3] http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Lincoln/gettysburg.html

[4] http://209.208.234.42/archives/speeches/jan1144.cfm

[5] http://www.supremelaw.org/decs/lopez/lopez.htm

[6] http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/virginia.htm

[7] http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/thanksgiving/thankstext.html

[8] http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/jm4/writings/memor.htm

[9] http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/misc/danbury.htm

[10] http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/TocDem2.html

[11] http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/

[12] http://pages.towson.edu/sovadia/SOCI243%5COne%20Nation,%20Slightly%20Divisible.htm

[13] http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.17299/article_detail.asp

[14] http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/en/d_huntington.html

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Syllabus | No Comments »

Michael P. Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science

Monday, September 28th, 2009

University of Notre Dame

The Tocqueville Program and the Constitutional Studies project in the Political Science Department at the University of Notre Dame are important efforts, partially funded by the Jack Miller Center and its partner foundations, to increase the study of American Constitutional History and civic life. The faculty partner at the heart of this effort at Notre Dame is Michael P. Zuckert (B.A., Cornell University; Ph.D, University of Chicago, 1974).

Professor Zuckert works widely in the field of political philosophy, American constitutional law and theory, and American political thought. He has published Natural Rights and the New Republicanism and The Natural Rights Republic, which was named an outstanding book for 1997 by Choice magazine. In addition, Zuckert has published articles on a variety of topics, including George Orwell, Plato’s “Apology,” Shakespeare, and contemporary liberal theory. His most recent book is Launching Liberalism: On Lockean Political Philosophy. He is currently completing a book entitled Completing the Constitution: The Post-Civil War Amendments, is co-authoring a book on Machiavelli and Shakespeare, and has been commissioned to write the volume on John Rawls for a new series on Twentieth Century Political Philosophy . He co-authored and co-produced the public radio series Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson: A Nine Part Drama for the Radio and was senior scholar for Liberty!, a six hour public television series on the American Revolution. He has received grants from NEH, the Woodrow Wilson Center, Earhart Foundation and NSF, and has taught at Carleton College, Cornell University, Claremont Men’s College, Fordham University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Michael Zuckert

Michael Zuckert

Professor Zuckert has a reputation as one of the best classroom teachers in the United States for both graduate and undergraduate students. He also participates as a faculty member at our Jack Miller Summer Institutes and has played a leading role in the consortium of Chicago area schools involved in the JMC Chicago Initiative.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Miller Program News, Professors | No Comments »