Alumni Sequence: The American Tradition Year I

We begin the sequence with a consideration of America’s colonial heritage and of the forces and ideas that shaped its emergence into nationhood. In the seminar, we will reflect on the country’s uneasy Christian roots, embodied in Jonathan Edwards’ fiery sermons and fictionalized in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s retrospective romance, criticized by Huron statesman Kandiaronk, alongside the more secular and pragmatic perspectives of Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography and William Bradford in his foundational historical chronicle. The tutorial will focus on the debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists about how to conceive the unity of the United States and how to balance freedom and order in governing an unprecedentedly free citizenry

Course Outline

Required Texts:

1. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, rendered into modern English by Harold Paget, Dover, ISBN 978-0486452609.
2. Kandiaronk, “Dialogue on Religion” in Lahontan. [PDF provided on Canvas.]
3. Jonathan Edwards, A Jonathan Edwards Reader, ed. Smith, Stout, and Minkema, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-030008389.
4. Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography, Library of America/Vintage, ISBN 978-1598530957.
5. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter, Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0143107668.
6. The Federalist, ed. J.R. Pole (Hackett Publishing Company, 2005) ISBN 978-0872207110.
7. The Anti-Federalist: Writings by the Opponents of the Constitution, ed. Herbert J. Storing, selected by Murray Dry (University of Chicago Press, 1985) ISBN 978-0226775654.

Notes

Online registration deadline: Thursday, Sept 22 at 5 PM CT.