Lehrman American Studies Center

Required Texts

• Herodotus, Aristotle, Plato on democracy (handout)
• Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Mansfield/Winthrop, eds.)
• John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (Macpherson, ed.)
• Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (Silverman, ed.)
• Declaration of Independence(in Federalist volume)
• The Federalist Papers (Rossiter, ed.)
• Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” (handout)
• Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, speeches (handout)
• Lincoln-Douglas Debates (Holzer, ed.)
• Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (Barnes & Noble Classics)
• Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (Vintage)

Ideas behind the Course

The greatest observer of America who ever lived, Alexis de Tocqueville, thought that the key to understanding our country is beginning from the fact that it is a democracy. But what does it mean to begin that way? Ancient writers too thought that the form of government (or regime) is the best beginning point for understanding a society, but what we call a democracy is surely not the same thing that writers such as Plato and Aristotle called democracy (and thought to be a defective regime). And the authors of the Federalist, when arguing for ratification of the new constitution, did not want to call the new government a democracy, in part because they agreed in some ways with the analyses of the ancient philosophers. On the other hand, critics of the USA today, at least critics in the West, would argue that America’s problems and injustices are largely due to the fact that the country is not democratic enough or not a true democracy. Even if the founders did not want to give us a democracy, many of us judge America with a democratic notion or standard of justice. (When I carry a copy of Democracy in America around campus, other professors some times look at it and say, “There’s no democracy in America!”)

But all of these observations can help us to understand America and arguably are observations that get to the heart of the matter as to what America is and what it means to be American. That is, if we begin with the writings of the ancients on democracy we can pursue the question of how the founders of the USA tried to solve the problems found in most or even all previous democracies—which they expressly were trying to do. And if we take seriously the criticism that we are not sufficiently just because we are not democratic enough (especially because of the status of African-Americans and other minorities), we must then try to figure out how to become more democratic and in doing that it makes sense to look at what some would call the “re-founding” of America by Lincoln.

One of the most interesting questions we will pursue is how it came about that the word “democracy” now connotes something like the ideal regime, while not so long ago even in this country it was a word almost entirely with negative connotations. Tentatively, we can say that the change came about because of the belief that all people possess certain natural rights. Several of our readings will help us understand what the source of those rights is and exactly what rights we have. While doing all of this we will also keep in mind Plato’s claim that there is a type of human being that corresponds to every type of regime, and we will ask just what kind of person America produces. Leaving behind the various theoretical and political arguments we will look at in most of the course, we will turn to accounts of the lives of American individuals by Franklin (early in the course), and Twain and Ellison (at the end of the course).

Requirements/Grading

Because of the small number of students in the course this semester, we cannot have anything like a lecture format. It makes sense, in fact, to have students discussing as much as possible and even leading discussion as much as possible, especially since the guiding ideas of the course have been spelled out here in writing. Your job is very much to try out and test the guiding ideas as I have stated them and then go beyond them. When we have a settled enrollment number we will determine exactly how you will lead class discussion, but in general you will work in pairs and at least once a week a pair will lead discussion. To be clear: you will do this several times during the course; I will explain the expectations further when we begin these assignments.

To balance your work load, paper assignments will be relatively short and will not weigh heavily.

• Paper #1 10%
• Paper #2 15%
• Participation/attendance 25%
• Leading class (average of all times) 30%
• Final exam 20%

Schedule

• Class 1. Introduction
• Class 2. Ancients handout
• Class 3. finish ancients handout; Tocqueville (Mansfield/Winthrop’s introduction, pp. xliii-lxxvii--recommended; and pp. 165, 235-264 (on tyranny of the majority)
• Class 4. Tocqueville, pp. 302-348 (on the three races in America)
• Class 5. Tocqueville, 661-676 (on the despotism of a schoolmaster government)
• Class 6 & 7. I HAVE JURY DUTY THIS WEEK, SO WE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE CLASS
• Class 8. Locke (chs. 1-4)
• Class 9. Locke (chs. 5-7)
• Class 10. Locke (chs. 8, 9, 11, 13, and 19), begin Franklin
• Class 11. Franklin (pp. 3-65)
• Class 12. Franklin (pp. 65-171)
• Class 13. Franklin (pp. 193-202 and general discussion of Franklin)
• Class 14. Declaration of Independence; Federalist (Introduction by Charles Kesler—recommended; Papers 1 & 2)
• Class 15. Federalist (Papers 9, 10 & 51)
• Class 16. Federalist (Papers 23, 69, 70, & 72)
• Class 17. Douglass 4th (5th) of July speech; Lincoln (“The perpetuation of our Political Institutions” 1/27/38; Temperance Address 2/22/42; speech in Springfield, 6/16/58); Douglas (speech in Chicago, 7/9/58)
• Class 18. Lincoln-Douglas (First Joint Debate)
• Class 19. Lincoln-Douglas (Seventh Joint Debate)
• Class 20. Twain (pp. 3-208)
• Class 21. Twain (pp. 208-293)
• SEMESTER BREAK
• Class 22. Ellison (Ellison’s introduction (recommended) and pp. 3-230)
• Class 23. Ellison (pp. 231-317)
• Class 24. Ellison (pp. 318-478)
• Class 25. Ellison (pp. 479-end)
• Class 26. Course conclusion and overview

We will likely adhere very closely to this schedule, but of course it is subject to small changes depending on our actual pace in class and depending on whether some material leads to very fruitful discussions and some material leads to less than very fruitful discussions. That is, I am happy to spend more time on the material that the class in general is getting more out of. Note too that I have built a little time into the end of the schedule. We may not need two full weeks on Ellison, and so we may be able to spend more time on something else. Also, should I get called to serve on a jury, this schedule could change; likewise, if I am done after one day of service, the schedule will be looser. Note too that from time to time I may give you a short reading assignment that is not listed on this syllabus, just as I may cut some of this if it simply seems to be too much or less relevant given the direction our discussions have gone.

Logic of the Schedule

You can think of the schedule as following this logic: the ancients identified particular problems with democracy in general (though Aristotle, at least, is well aware that there is a variety of democracies) and Tocqueville identified problems with American democracy in particular (he movingly and sharply observed the problems among the races, and he thought the USA susceptible to the tyranny of the majority and the tyranny of a “schoolmaster” government). We will try to understand and evaluate their arguments and then go on to see how and how successfully America has tried to solve those problems, to the extent that we find that they are in fact America’s problems. The Franklin, Twain, and Ellison writings will not always clearly help us with that, but they will do so at times, and at other times they will help us test Plato’s claim that there is such a thing as “democratic man” (or a type of person and type of way of life that comes about only in democracy).