American history is often presented as a tale of dynamic movers and shakers who subdued an untamed wilderness on the way to forging a great nation - all the while leaving philosophy for their European counterparts. But this history neglects the philosophical underpinnings of America. As these 36 lectures demonstrate, America has borne the imprint of influential thinkers from its earliest days, from the Reformation theology of John Calvin to the Enlightenment philosophy of John Locke. Throughout this epic historical journey, you'll explore the many ways this nation has answered the question: What is an American? Professor Kobylka traces the many answers that have been offered showing how the idea of “We the People” has changed and expanded far beyond the Founding Fathers' original conception. You'll navigate America's ever-shifting political landscape and see how the great political trends in American history can be understood as variations on a single theme: the philosophy of liberalism, this conception that government is the source of some of our most deeply valued political notions. You'll also meet the great men and women who, over the course of American history, have molded political thought and policy. This is your opportunity to gain a deep understanding both of the nation's past and how this rich political history continues to influence the current day. Even if you've studied American history before, you'll encounter something new: a unique synthesis of viewpoints, ideas, and events that's enlightening and compelling.
Cycles of American Political Thought
01: America—The Philosophical Experiment
Although Americans have a reputation as pragmatists, not philosophers, they've relied from the nation's inception on an ever-evolving framework of political theory grounded in liberalism. This lecture provides an overview of this tradition and establishes a context for exploring and defining American political thought.
02: Historical Baggage
The colonies' first European settlers from Great Britain were shaped by ideas of government developed in their home country. In this lecture, we explore the centuries of British political tradition that influenced the forging of a new notion of governance.
03: Theoretical Baggage
While the historical events of British history helped shaped America's definition of government, the colonists were influenced profoundly by the two dominant theoretical traditions from their time: the Protestantism of Martin Luther and John Calvin, and the theory of liberalism developed by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.
04: A Puritan Beginning
The first European colonists sailed to the new world to gain freedom to practice their religion. In this lecture, we examine how the Calvinist world-view of these settlers dominated early colonial life, as exemplified in the leadership of John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
05: Expansion and Individualism
As the colonies grow and expand, cracks begin to appear in the Puritan control of government. New communities and their leaders, such as Roger Williams and John Wise, develop competing views of political governance that replace Winthrop's theocracy with a more democratic notion of governance, paving the way for the advance of liberalism in the colonies.
06: The Revolutionary Context
With the French and Indian War (1754–63), Britain breaks from its policy of benign neglect regarding the colonies and imposes new taxes to support the costs of war. Viewed as unjust, the taxes galvanize the colonists and help forge a sense of their own political identity and inalienable rights.
07: The Road to the Declaration of Independence
In this lecture, we examine the combination of events and ideas that contributed to the development of America's ultimate petition to the British government for its rights: the Declaration of Independence.
08: A “Natural” Revolutionary—Thomas Paine
This lecture explores the life and legacy of Thomas Paine, an influential writer who through his countless pamphlets and other works acted as town crier for the new world order of liberalism.
09: The Unconscious Dialectic of Crèvecoeur
Although not an explicitly political theorist, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur contributed an informal meditation on political philosophy in his eyewitness account of the early years of the republic. Crèvecoeur extols America as “the new Eden” of liberty, but his work is haunted by the inescapable brutality that persists alongside the tenets of liberalism.
10: John Adams— “Constitutionalist”
Arguably the least heralded member of the revolutionary and constitutional generations, John Adams was also the most theoretically inclined American thinker of his time. In this lecture, we examine Adams's contribution to American political history through his works and writings.
11: A Political Constitution
While the Constitution broke new philosophical ground in establishing ruling principles for a modern democracy, it was also a product of its specific historical and political context. In this lecture, we investigate how this landmark document was shaped by the competing needs and concerns of delegates from all over the 13 colonies.
12: A Philosophical Constitution—Faction
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote The Federalist Papers, a set of essays designed to defend the Constitution and support its ratification. In this lecture, we trace how these essays contended with majority factions.
13: A Philosophical Constitution—Structure
In applying the “science of politics” to the Constitution, the authors of The Federalist Papers described political structures—including the separation of powers and the system of institutional checks among governmental branches—intended to inhibit faction and stem.
14: A Philosophical Constitution—Interpretation
We take a closer look at The Federalist Papers, examining three modern interpretations: the Pluralist and Republican interpretations, and the Elitist critique. In these, we discover the open texture of interpretation that underlies the signal document of America's political foundation.
15: Disorganized Losers—The Anti-Federalists
Opposing the authors of The Federalist Papers were the Anti-Federalists who argued against adopting the Constitution. Although history has deemed them the losers in this battle, their efforts led to the adoption of the Bill of Rights, and their arguments have recurred throughout American history.
16: The “Genius” of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson is one of the best known and most revered figures of the American founding, due in no small part to his role as author of the Declaration of Independence. We examine the complicated, sometimes contradictory, political views that underpinned his life and writings.
17: Jacksonian Democracy—The “People” Extended
During the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the nation expanded westward, and as it did, the definition of “We the People” expanded as well. This expansion introduced into government a wider range of competing demands that helped fuel the debate between two conceptions of the Constitution: Federalist (in favor of a strong central government) and Jacksonian (in favor of preserving states' rights to self-determination).
18: Iconoclastic Individualism—Thoreau
With his championing of the individual and his suspicion of coercive authority, Thoreau served as a liberal critic of a developing liberal society. His iconoclastic individualism would later resurface in movements for civil rights and environmentalism.
19: Inclusionist Stirrings—Douglass and Stanton
The original framers of the Constitution outlined the rights of “the people” but only the people who counted: propertied white men. In this lecture, we begin to consider those who lived on the fringes of the body politic—slaves and women—through an examination of the lives and works of freed slave Frederick Douglass and proto-feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
20: The Organic Socialism of Brownson
In response to the explosion of industrialization in the North, the new nation experienced a widening gap between rich and poor, owner and worker. In a response that anticipates Karl Marx, Orestes Brownson offered a socialist critique of America's burgeoning capitalism that later influenced activist strains of liberalism.
21: American Feudalism—The Vision of Fitzhugh
Like Brownson, George Fitzhugh offers a perspective from outside liberalism, but from a completely different point of view. An unapologetic son of the South, Fitzhugh constructs a neofeudalist solution to society's woes, in which the “master race” will ensure the flourishing of a stable society.
22: Constitutionalizing the Slave Class
Another son of the South, John Calhoun reframes the question of abolition as one of protecting the rights of a special interest (slaveholders) against a tyrannical majority (abolitionists). But his argument ranges beyond the racism of the day, and Calhoun can be seen as the father of pluralistic theory in America.
23: Lincoln's Reconstitution of America
By applying the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution, as the cornerstone of American governance, Abraham Lincoln reshapes the nation's definition of liberalism, ushering in a new justification for activist government.
24: Equality in the Law and in Practice
In the aftermath of the Civil War, another battle heats up between two opposing strains of the American political tradition—active state liberalism and minimal state liberalism. Congress's Reconstruction Acts represent the actions of a strong federal government advancing a new egalitarianism, but they are gutted by a Supreme Court favoring states' rights.
25: Social Darwinism and Economic Laissez-Faire
Variance and diversity have very different meanings in the world of complexity theory. Grasping that difference puts you on the way to understanding how complex systems achieve diversity and why diversity enables them to be both innovative and robust.
26: Looking Backward, Looking Forward
Countering Sumner, Edward Bellamy offered a socialist solution to the economic disparities and social unrest resulting from the Industrial Revolution in his popular utopian novel Looking Backward.
27: Teddy Roosevelt and Progressivism
Following in the footsteps of Lincoln, Roosevelt saw government as an engine to advance liberal values through active involvement in social and economic policy. Through trust busting and economic oversight, he enacted his belief that government should regulate large corporations in the interest of the public good.
28: Supreme Court and Laissez-Faire
Populated largely by pro-business Republicans, the Supreme Court of the early 20th century embraced Sumner's Darwinian understanding of governmental power, striking down legislation regulating wages and work hours.
29: The Women's Movement and the 19th Amendment
Activists such as Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt re-energized the call for the inclusion of women in American political and economic life. Their crowning achievement was the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
30: Eugene V. Debs and Working-Class Socialism
Influenced by Marx, Eugene Debs offered a critique of mainstream liberalism by emphasizing economic class as the crucial element in American society. As a committed socialist, union organizer, civil rights advocate, and candidate for the U.S. presidency, Debs strove to empower the working class as a means to ensure equality and liberty.
31: Hamiltonian Means for Jeffersonian Ends
Often called the “architect of the welfare state,” Herbert Croly argued that to ensure the conditions of liberty, the government must create a level economic playing field for its citizens. His argument provided a theoretical underpinning to the progressive nationalism begun by Lincoln, advanced by Teddy Roosevelt, and opposed by the Supreme Court.
32: FDR, the New Deal, and the Supreme Court
Working to pull the nation out of the Great Depression, Roosevelt found little public resistance to his New Deal legislation, a series of programs that represented an unprecedented expansion of the reach of the federal government. His efforts were initially countered by the Supreme Court, but eventually paved the way for a new wave of welfare-state liberalism.
33: The Racial Revolution
Responding to the long history of legislation supporting “separate but equal” treatment of African Americans, Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois proposed alternative paths toward the meaningful inclusion of blacks in American political life.
34: The New Egalitarianism and Freedom
With the 1960s came new struggles for universal freedom and equality, especially in the reinvigorated efforts of the women's movement and the civil rights movement. American youth join the fight, critiquing traditional institutions through organizations such as the Berkeley-based Free Speech Movement and Students for a Democratic Society.
35: The Reagan Revolution
After the tumultuous 1960s, the American political climate swung back to a more conservative notion of limited, decentralized government. The movement reached its peak with the rise of Reaganism of the 1980s, which synthesized strains of minimal state liberalism with a theocratic moralism hearkening back to America's Puritan roots.
36: Cycles of American Political Conversations
A backward glance at the material covered in these lectures reveals a complex and ever-evolving philosophical tradition at the heart of American politics. Cycling between opposing strands of liberalism informed by nonliberal critiques, American political thought has repeatedly accommodated changing realities, giving the nation a philosophical flexibility to meet the challenges of a changing world.
Overview Course No. 4820
About
Dr. Joseph F. Kobylka is Associate Professor of Political Science at Southern Methodist University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. He earned his B.A. in Government and History from Beloit College, graduating magna cum laude, and his Ph.D. in Political Sience from the University of Minnesota. Professor Kobylka has received numerous awards for teaching, including the Golden Mustang Award, M Award, Willis M. Tate Award, Bridge Award, and Deschner Award in Women's Studies, and four Rotunda Outstanding Professor awards. He was also the inaugural recipient of SMU's Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor Award in 2001, and is a member of the University's Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Professor Kobylka is a leading scholar of political science and is recognized as an expert in American politics, constitutional law, judicial behavior, and American political thought. He is a founding member of the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies at SMU, and he appeared in a four-part PBS series on the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Kobylka has published more than 20 scholarly articles in political science journals, law reviews, and edited volumes. He also wrote and cowrote three books: The Supreme Court and Legal Change: Abortion and the Death Penalty; Public Interest Law: An Annotated Bibliography; and The Politics of Obscenity: Group Litigation in a Context of Legal Change. He is completing a biography of former U.S. Supreme Court justice Harry A. Blackmun. His work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, and The Indianapolis Star.
