Earlier this year, I discovered while rummaging through back issues of the Intellectual History Newsletter that the editors there used to print syllabi of courses germane to the field from their subscribers. “Germane” was interpreted fairly broadly, and that was all to the good, as it gives a snapshot of a wide range of courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, from the intellectual history survey to highly specialized seminars.
I invited readers of the blog to send in their syllabi, and now I’m going to post those I received over the next few weeks. If you’ve got a syllabus you’d like to share, please by all means send it on to andrew [dot] seal [at] yale [dot] edu.
Below the fold is syllabus #1 from Daniel Wickberg, Associate Professor of Historical Studies and the History of Ideas at the University of Texas at Dallas, and the immediate past president of the Society. Professor Wickberg has written recently for the blog, penning a luminous essay on Jackson Lears’s classic No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920. If you prefer to download the syllabus as a pdf, you can do so here.
Course Syllabus
Course Information
Course Number/Section HUHI 7313 001
Course Title American Intellectual History
Term Fall 2014
Days & Times T 10:00-12:45
JO 4.112
Professor Contact Information
Professor Wickberg
Office Phone 6222
Other Phone 214 942-1690
Email Address [email protected]
Office Location JO 5.428
Office Hours M 2:00-3:00
Course Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, and/or Other Restrictions
PhD Students in the Humanities Program.
Course Description
This course is a PhD-level overview of American thought from the seventeenth century to the present, with a focus on philosophy, political thought, and social thought. We will be reading both primary writings by American thinkers and a selective sample of recent scholarly literature on American intellectual history. Topics covered include: Puritanism, the American Enlightenment, evangelical religion, romanticism, feminism, abolition and pro-slavery thought, Darwinism, natural science and religion, modernism and antimodernism, cold war liberalism and its critics, the rise of social science, pragmatism, forms of relativism, postmodernisms. The course seeks to balance intensive attention to primary readings with a substantive introduction to historiography of the field. This course lays the foundation for students who are interested in pursuing a PhD exam field in American intellectual history.
As an overview, the course generally sacrifices depth for breadth; it seeks to put students on a basis of familiarity with a broad range of thought and issues, but does not provide an in-depth examination of a specific issue or problem. Students will be able to explore specific topics in more depth with their papers. One of the secondary purposes of the course is to give students a working understanding of the approaches to the past characteristic of intellectual history as a discipline. Students will learn the variety of ways in which scholars approach the thought and thinkers of the past, how they use sources, what kinds of argumentation and modes of writing are characteristic of intellectual history. In particular, the purpose of reading substantial secondary and primary materials in concert is to get students to understand how to think about ideas historically, rather than in other ways, such as philosophically or instrumentally.
Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes
Students will demonstrate knowledge of major figures and schools of thought in American intellectual history.
Students will analyze and interpret a significant body of thought in American intellectual history.
Students will demonstrate knowledge of historiography of American intellectual history.
Required Textbooks and Materials
Required Texts
David Hollinger and Charles Capper, eds., The American Intellectual Tradition, vols, I and II, 6th edition. Please note: Only the 6th edition contains all relevant required readings.
Vol. I 978-0195392920
Vol. II 978-0195392937
David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation
978-0307269096
Hardcover
Jonathan Scott Holloway, Confronting the Veil
978-0807853436
Andrew Jewett, Science, Democracy, and the American University
978-1107686311
Mary Kelly, Learning to Stand and Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America’s Republic
978-0807859216
Jonathan Levy, Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America
978-0674736351
Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club
978-0374528492
Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia
978-0674064348
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas
978-0226006765
Daniel T. Rodgers, Age of Fracture
978-0674064362
Eric Slauter, The State as a Work of Art
978-0226761961
Additional materials on course electronic reserve as indicated in the schedule of readings
Assignments & Academic Calendar
Topics, Reading Assignments, Due Dates, Exam Dates
Week I Tuesday August 26
Introduction. No reading.
Week II Tuesday, September 2
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. I, pp. 3-108
Perry Miller, “The Marrow of Puritan Divinity” in Errand Into the Wilderness
Janice Knight, Orthodoxies in Massachusetts, introduction and chapter 4, pp. 3-11, 88-108
Week III Tuesday, September 9
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. I, pp. 111-216
Eric Slauter, The State as a Work of Art
Week IV Tuesday, September 16
Mary Kelly, Learning to Stand and Speak: Women, Education, and Public Life in America’s Republic
Week V Tuesday, September 23
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. I, pp. 219–449
John L. Thomas, “Romantic Reform in America, 1815-1865,” American
Quarterly 17 (1965): 656-81
Robert Abzug, Cosmos Crumbling, chap. 6, pp. 129-62
Jeffrey Sklansky, The Soul’s Economy: Market Society and Selfhood in
American Thought, 1820-1920, chap. 2, pp. 33-72
Week VI Tuesday, September 30
David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation
Week VII Tuesday, October 7
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. 1, pp. 453-537
Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, chapter 4. pp. 92-131
George Fredrickson, The Black Image in the White Mind, chap. 4, pp. 97-129
Molly Oshatz, “The Problem of Moral Progress: The Slavery Debates and the Development of Liberal Protestantism in the United States,” Modern Intellectual History, 5 (August 2008), 225-50
Week VIII Tuesday, October 14
Jonathan Levy, Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America
Jeffrey Sklansky, “The Elusive Sovereign: New Intellectual and Social Histories Of Capitalism,” Modern Intellectual History 9.1 (April 2012): 233-48
Week IX Tuesday, October 21
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. 2, pp. 3-120
Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club
Week X Tuesday, October 28
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. 2, pp. 123-254
Andrew Jewett, Science, Democracy, and the American University
Week XI Tuesday, November 4
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. 2, pp. 257-348
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, American Nietzsche
Week XII Tuesday, November 11
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. 2, pp. 349-416
Jonathan Scott Holloway, Confronting the Veil
Week XIII Tuesday, November 18
NO CLASS MEETING
Paper Outline and Bibliography Due: Submit via Email
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week XIV Tuesday, December 2
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. 2, pp. 419-509
Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia
Week XV Tuesday, December 9
American Intellectual Tradition, vol. 2, pp. 510-636
Daniel Rodgers, Age of Fracture
Friday, December 12
PAPERS DUE @ 1:00 pm JO 5.428
Grading Policy
Grades will be based on class participation, one short oral presentation, and a research paper of 15-20 pages. Grades will be determined on the following basis:
Participation 40%
Oral Presentation 10%
Term Paper 50%
Course Policies
Late Work
It is extremely important that students complete all assigned readings for the discussion dates set in the syllabus. Students will also have an assigned date for an oral presentation; if illness or emergency prevents you from making this assigned date, you must let me know immediately. If there are legitimate reasons, we can arrange to reschedule, but generally extensions will not be granted for lack of foresight or matters of preference. Please make every effort to meet course deadlines.
Class Attendance
Attendance is required. Illness, emergencies, and religious holidays are the only legitimate reasons for missing class. Missed classes will affect your participation grade, and excessive absence will result in failure of the course.
Classroom Citizenship
This is a discussion class. Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the reading. Lateness is disruptive, so please make every effort to be on time. Give fellow students and the instructor the courtesy of listening to their ideas. Disagreement and argument are the lifeblood of intellectual work and are encouraged, but please avoid personal remarks and rudeness. My aim is to make all students comfortable and willing to discuss their ideas, but also to challenge students to develop their ideas or defend their claims. Please do not take such challenges personally. Please give the class your full attention: cell phones, laptops and unrelated notes and books should be put away during class. Do not pass notes or hold whispered side-conversations with fellow students during class; if there is something worth saying about the class material, please address the entire class.
Please consult university policy for information about educational matters and regulations not discussed here. This class will be conducted according to university policies.
0