American Society and Politics

Where to find the readings:

= Available at Firestone Library Reserve Room
= World Wide Web. (Click on the link on the reading list.)
= Electronic Reserve/Blackboard course documents
For purchase at Labyrinth Books:

Part I. American Society and Politics: The Big Questions

February 5. Introduction

February 7. Is America sui generis? The question of "American exceptionalism."

Seymour Martin Lipset, Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada (Routledge, 1990), xiii-xviii (preface), 1-41 (Chs. 1-2).
Rogers M. Smith, "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America." American Political Science Review (1993), 87: 549-554 [rest of article optional].

February 12. Freedom, power, and the founding: The disputed meaning of the American Revolution

Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (Random House, 1991), 1-8, 11-24, 109-14, 169-89.
Paul Starr, Freedom's Power (Basic Books, 2007), 29-32, 41-52 (from Ch. 2, "The Creative Reluctance of Liberal Statecraft").

February 14.Where are we from, and who are we? The problem of American national identity

John Higham, “Immigration,” in C. Vann Woodward, ed., The Comparative Approach to American History (Oxford University Press, 1997), 91-105.
Lipset, Continental Divide, 172-86.
Samuel Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity (Simon & Schuster, 2004), 21-80 (Chs. 2-4).
T. Alexander Aleinikoff, "A Multicultural Nationalism?," The American Prospect no. 36 (January-February 1998), 80-86.

Part II. Power and American Democracy

February 19 and 21.Civil society, religion, and early American political development

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 2, Sec. 2, Ch. 2 ("Of Individualism in Democratic Countries"), Ch. 4 ("That the Americans Combat the Effects of Individualism with Free Institutions"), Ch. 5 ("Of the Uses which the Americans Make of Public Associations").
Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990 (Rutgers University Press, 1992), 1-60.
Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State (Cambridge University Press, 1982), 3-33 (Chs. 1-2).
Alex Keyssar, The Right to Vote (Basic Books, 2000), xv-xxiv.

February 26. Is American civic life in decline? (1): Recent trends

Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster, 2000), Chs. 1-9.

February 28. Is American civic life in decline? (2): The role of the media and other possible causes

Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster, 2000), Chs. 10-15.
Markus Prior, "News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout," American Journal of Political Science 49 (July 2005), 577-592.

March 4. Power in America: alternative perspectives

Nelson W. Polsby, "How to Study Community Power: The Pluralist Alternative," Journal of Politics 22 (Aug., 1960), 474-484.
John Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 3-32.

March 6. Ethnic and class divisions in America

Robert Putnam, " E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century," Scandinavian Political Studies 30 (2007), 137–174.
Douglas S. Massey, Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System (Russell Sage Foundation, 2007), 1-27 (Ch. 1).
Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, "Class in America: Shadowy Lines that Still Divide," New York Times May 15, 2005.

March 11.Public opinion and politics

James A. Stimson, Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 23-95 (Chs. 2-3).

March 13. Midterm exam.

Fall Break

Part III. The Changing Context of Politics

March 25 and 27. Capitalism, globalization, and political power

Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3d ed. (Harper & Row, 1950 [orig. ed. 1942]), Ch. 7 (81-86), Ch. 11-12 (120-55).
Robert B. Reich, The Work of Nations (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), Chs. 1-12, 14, 17-19, 23-25.
Dan Clawson and Mary Ann Clawson, "What Has Happened to the U.S. Labor Movement? Union Decline and Renewal?" Annual Review of Sociology (1999) 25: 95-119.
Thomas L. Friedman, "It's a Flat World After all," New York Times Magazine , April 3, 2005

April 1 and 3. The changing structure of social inequality

Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout, Century of Difference: How America Changed in the Last One Hundred Years (Russell Sage Foundation, 2006), Ch. 4.
Massey, Categorically Unequal, 28-50 (Ch. 2).
David Cay Johnston, "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind," New York Times June 5, 2005.

April 8 and 10. The color line

F. James Davis, Who Is Black? One Nation's Definition (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), 1-30, 51-58.
Massey, Categorically Unequal, 51-157 (Chs. 3-4).

April 15 and 17. The politics of social security, welfare, and health care

Massey, Categorically Unequal, 158-210 (Ch. 5).
Christopher Jencks, “Liberal Lessons from Welfare Reform,” The American Prospect (July 15, 2002).
Jonas Pontusson, Inequality and Prosperity: Social Europe vs. Liberal America (Cornell University Press, 2005), Introduction, Chapter 7.

April 22. Politics and the changing relations of men and women

Massey, Categorically Unequal, 211-241 (Ch. 6).
Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, “The Developmental Theory of the Gender Gap: Women’s and Men’s Voting Behavior in Global Perspective,” International Political Science Review 21 (2000): 441-462.
Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood (Metropolitan Books, 2001), Introduction, Chs. 1-2.

April 24. Political polarization in America

Morris Fiorina, Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Pearson, 2005).

April 29. The conservative turn in American politics: contrasting accounts

Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Metropolitan Books, 2004), 1-27.
Larry M. Bartels, “What’s the Matter with What’s the Matter with Kansas?” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1 (2006), 201-226.
John Mickelthwait and Adian Wooldridge, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (Penguin Press, 2004), 5-21, 291-313, 334-353.
Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (Yale University Press, 2005), Introduction, Ch. 1, 4.

May 1. Accounting for change in American society and politics

Final review and discussion.