Listed in: Political Science, as POSC-319
Jonathan M. Obert (Section 01)
Politics are not frozen in time, but are rather the product of developmental processes. Building on a survey of crucial works in the American Political Development (APD) literature and on general approaches (rational choice, sociological, etc.) to understanding institutional change, this course will introduce ways of thinking historically about political institutions in the U.S. Why did the party system evolve the way it did? Where did the rules and procedures of Congress come from? Where and when did important public services (transportation and communication infrastructure, protection for property, social insurance, etc.) become the provenance of state bureaucracies? How has the function and power of the Presidency changed over time? How did western expansion, imperialism, and military experience shape the federal government? These are a few of the substantive questions we will address in this course.
More broadly, however, this course helps us think about politics in a temporal way. History and political science are intrinsically related, but to understand the current debates and questions we need to be explicit about the types of processes (long-term, short-term, episodic, cyclic, etc.) that shape the institutions and events we see. Hence a key component of this course will be interrogating how scholars address the historiographic problem of studying politics, with the aim of cultivating the analytic tools necessary to situate contemporary political debates in the stream of time.
Requisite: An introductory POSC course in IL (200 level or above) or any U.S. History course (100 level or above) or HIST 301 or AMST 468 or LJST 222. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Obert.
If Overenrolled: Priority first given to fourth-year students, then to a balance of sophomores and juniors, randomly determined, followed by first-year students and 5-college students.
Cost: $19.00 ?
Section 01
Tu 11:30 AM - 12:50 PM SMUD 207
Th 11:30 AM - 12:50 PM SMUD 207
| ISBN | Title | Publisher | Author(s) | Comment | Book Store | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disenfranchising democracy : constructing the electorate in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. | Cambridge University Press (2018) | David Bateman | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Building an American empire : the era of territorial and political expansion | Princeton University Press (2017) | Paul Frymer | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The polarizers : postwar architects of our partisan era | University of Chicago Press (2018) | Sam Rosenfeld | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The first civil right : how liberals built prison America | Oxford University Press (2014) | Naomi Murakawa | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The great alignment : race, party transformation, and the rise of Donald Trump | Yale University Press (2018) | Alan I. Abramowitz | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Warfare state : World War II Americans and the age of big government | Oxford University Press (2011) | James T. Sparrow | Amherst Books | TBD |
These books are available locally at Amherst Books.