Spring,
Fall
4
A survey of the ideas and controversies in American political thought and development from the Puritans to the present. Topics may include: the philosophical origins of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, selfishness and morality, federalism, the democratization of politics, equality and slavery, laissez-faire capitalism and the welfare state, the civil rights movement, and the redefinitions of freedom and equality by, for example, the new left and feminism. Not offered every year.