This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Calendar

LEC # TOPICS
1 Introduction
2 Interpreting American Political Thought
3 The Protestant Background
4 Revolutionary America
5 Debating the Constitution
6 Jeffersonian Republicans v. Hamiltonian Federalists, with Madison in the Pivot
7 Individualism
8 Racism, Nativism, and Sexism in Antebellum America
9 A New Birth of Freedom?
10 The New Inegalitarians, or The Descent of Man
11 The Death of Freedom?
12 The Politics of Inclusion and the Politics of Difference
13 Markets, Morals, and America Abroad