HIST 643 2B / POLSC 643 2B: Administrative Power and Law This class will examine the constitutional and legal questions surrounding the emergence of the administrative state, which is the primary way that public policy is made in contemporary America. We will examine how Congress grants authority to agencies, who oversees those agencies, how those […]
HIST 642 2A / POLSC 642 2A: Political Parties This course examines the development of American political parties, focusing on the meaning of parties and historic moments in the rise and fall of political parties from the Founding era to the present. Topics may include re-aligning elections, changing coalitions within American parties, and the contemporary […]
HIST 632 2A / POLSC 632 2A: The American Presidency I – Washington to Lincoln This course is an examination of the political and development of the office of president from the Founding era through the Civil War. It focuses on how the presidency shaped American political life as the country grew and struggled with […]
HIST 506 2A / POLSC 506 2A: The Rise of Modern America, 1914-1945 With the exception of the Civil War era, it is difficult to find another thirty-year period in U.S. history during which the nation underwent such dramatic change. In 1914 the United States was no more than a regional power, with a primarily […]
HIST 503 2A / POLSC 503 2A: Sectionalism and Civil War A study of the sectional conflict beginning with the nullification crisis. The course will not only examine the political, social and economic developments in the period leading to the civil war, but will emphasize the political thought of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and John […]
HIST 610 3A / POLSC 610 3A: American Foreign Policy Students examine events and issues in the foreign policy of the American republic. Topics include the major schools of thought and approaches, the connection between domestic and foreign politics, and the connection between the principles of the American regime and its foreign policy. Materials: Syllabus […]
HIST 608 3A / POLSC 608 3A: Civil War and Reconstruction This course will examine military aspects of the war, as well as political developments during it, including the political history of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. The course also examines the post-war Amendments and the Reconstruction era. Instructor: Robert Colby […]
HIST 605 3A / POLSC 605 3A: The Age of Enterprise In the last decades of the 19th century, the United States took decisive steps away from its rural, agrarian past toward its industrial future, assuming its place among world powers. This course examines that movement, covering such topics as business-labor relations, political corruption, immigration, […]
HIST 510 3A / POLSC 510 3A: Great American Texts – Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America is the best book on democracy and the best book on America. He recognized the justice of democratic equality but also was concerned how the passion for equality could degrade human dignity, undermine liberty, and […]
HIST 502 3A / POLSC 502 3A: The American Founding This course is an intensive study of the constitutional convention, the struggle over ratification of the Constitution, and the creation of the Bill of Rights. It will include a close examination of the Federalist Papers and the antifederalist papers.
