Alumni Sequence: The American Tradition Year I
This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Basic Program of Liberal Education curriculum.
The spring quarter examines the fault line in the founding of the United States, the legacy of racism, exploitation and slavery that would eventuate in the Civil War and continue to haunt the country to the present day—and on the other hand the distinctively American humanism, democratic spirit, and sense of justice that would motivate the struggle for inclusion and unity. In the seminar we will read Bartolomeo de las Casas’ account of colonial atrocities; Frederick Douglass’s pointed autobiography, which catalyzed the abolitionist movement; and Walt Whitman’s epic-lyric attempt to poetically bring together the country he saw splitting apart. In the tutorial we consider Lincoln’s speeches and his deft, brilliant and at times wily efforts to rhetorically steer the states toward a new unity.
Course Outline
Reading List
De las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Penguin; ISBN: 978-0140445626
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass: The Complete 1855 and 1891-92 Editions. Library of America. ISBN: 978-1598530971
The Portable Frederick Douglass, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 978-0143106814
Lincoln’s Selected Writings, ed. David S. Reynolds, W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN: 978-0393921793
The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 978-0226020846