Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Intro to American Political Thought (Edward Erikson)/Course description

Course description
In 1831, while traveling in America, Alexis Tocqueville noted that no other country in the world cared as little for philosophy as the United States. Others have noted aptly that America’s greatest contribution to political thought may be the idea of America itself. How that idea took shape is an extraordinary and ongoing story. The founding of The United States of America is marked by a debate in which multiple and competing ideas of governance and statehood clash and combine. While the enlightenment principles of liberalism, including liberty, property, and individual rights dominate America’s founding documents, these ideas remain riddled with ambiguities and contestation. Thus, the mature form of American democracy was not present in the seeds that the Europeans settlers carried with them from the old world – as Tocqueville claims; rather, American democracy emerges through debate and dialogue.

The following course will provide an introduction to American Political Thought through an examination of these ambiguities and contestations. We will trace the development of American Democracy through the debates and dialogues that advanced and challenged the very grounds upon which the country was founded. The course begins with an exploration of the multiple and competing philosophical traditions that influenced the founding of the country including liberalism, Puritanism, and the often ignored Native American Indians. Part II examines the practice of democracy in America focusing on the late days of antebellum America through the beginning of the 20th century, a tumultuous time in which the lofty rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights began to take on new meaning. While the course is rooted in the historical circumstances of the founding and re-founding of America, students are highly encouraged to draw parallels between historical readings and the contemporary political environment.

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