POLS 6395 AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

Fall Semester AY2004-2005
Department of Political Science
University of Houston
Houston, TX, 77204-3011

Classroom: 313 PGH
Time: 1:00PM - 4:00PM Monday

Instructor: Keith T. Poole

Office: 441A Hoffman Hall
E-Mail: kpoole@uga.edu
WebSite: Voteview Home Page

Requirements

1. The English Origins of American Political Institutions
   
   Assignment:
   
   
• North and Thomas, The Rise of the Western World
  
• Bailyn, The Origins of American Politics
  
• Douglass North and Barry Weingast. 1989. "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England." The Journal of Economic History, 49:803-832.
  
• Richard Pipes. 1999. Property and Freedom, chapter 3
  
  
Recommended:


• Bailyn, Bernard. 1967. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
  
• Hogue, Arthur R. 1966. Origins of the Common Law
  
  
2. The Revolution and the Constitution
   
   Assignment:
   
   
• Paine, Common Sense, selected portions.
  
• Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick. 1961. "The Founding Fathers: Young Men of the Revolution," Political Science Quarterly, 76: 799-816.
  
• Cecelia M. Kenyon. 1955. "Men of Little Faith: The Anti-Federalists on the Nature of Representative Government," William and Mary Quarterly, 12: 3-43.
  
• John P. Roche. 1961. "The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action," American Political Science Review, 55: 799-816.
  
• James Madison, "Federalist 10," The Federalist Papers
  
• The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence
  
• "Aspects of Revolutionary Finance, 1775 - 1783," by Ralph V. Harlow, American Historical Review 35, Oct. 1929, pp.46 -68.
  
  
Recommended:


• McGuire, Robert A. 2004. To Form a More Perfect Union: A New Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution
  
  

Midterm -- Due 22 October 2004


3. Judicial Review
   
   Assignment:
   
   
• Marbury vs. Madison
  
• Lockhart, Kamisar, & Choper, The American Constitution, Chapters 1 & 2 on Judicial Review.
  
  
4. Sores on the Body Politic: The Origins of Political Parties
   
   Assignment:
   
   
• Hofstadter, The Idea of a Party System
  
• Schattschneider, Party Government, pp. 1-64.
  
• Poole and Rosenthal, Congress, Chapters 1-4
  
  
Recommended:


• Gerring, John. 1998. Party Ideologies in America 1828 - 1996, pp. 1-56.
  
• Aldrich, John H. 1995. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America
  
  
5. The Conflict Over Slavery
   
   Assignment:
   
   
• Robert William Fogel, Without Consent or Contract, pp. 9 - 198.
  
• Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System, chs. 1-5
  
• Hofstadter, "Calhoun: The Marx of the Master Class" in The American Political Tradition
  
• McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal. 2001. "Congress and the Territorial Expansion of the United States." New Directions in Studying the History of the U.S. Congress, ed. by Mathew McCubbins and David Brady.
  
  
Recommended:


• Johnson, Walter. 1999. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market
  
  
6. The Civil War and Mr. Lincoln's Constitution
   
   Assignment:
   
   
• Hofstadter, "Abraham Lincoln and the Self-Made Myth" in The American Political Tradition
  
• Poole and Rosenthal, Congress, Chapter 5
  
  
7. Railroads and the Transformation of the Economy: 1830 - 1892
   
   Assignment:
   
   
• Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System, chs. 6-7
  
• Alfred D. Chandler Jr. 1977. The Visible Hand, chs. 1-8.
  
• Poole and Rosenthal, "Congress and Railroad Regulation: 1874-87." In The Regulated Economy: An Historical Approach to Political Economy, ed. by Claudia Goldin and Gary D. Libecap. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
  
  
Recommended:


• Gerring, John. 1998. Party Ideologies in America 1828 - 1996, pp. 57-124 and 161-186.
  
• Carter Goodrich. 1960. Government Promotion of American Canals and Railroads: 1800-1890
  
  

Final -- Due 8 December 2004


8. Economics, Politics, Regulation and the Progressive Movement
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System, chs. 8-9
     
   • Jonathan Hughes. 1986. The Vital Few: The Entrepreneur and American Economic Progress, chs. 8-9, E. H. Harriman and J. P. Morgan.
     
   • Poole and Rosenthal, Congress, Chapter 6
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • Albro Martin. 1971. Enterprise Denied: Origins of the Decline of American Railroads, 1897-1917
     
   • Theda Skocpol. 1992. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States
     
   • Richard Bensel. 1990. Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859-1877
     
     
9. The Realignment of the 1930s
   
   Assignment:
   
   
   • Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System, chs. 10-12
     
   • Barbara Sinclair. 1977. "Party Realignment and the Transformation of the Political Agenda: The House of Representatives, 1925-38." American Political Science Review, 73: 940-953.
     
   • David Brady. 1982. "Congressional Party Realignment and Transformation of Public Policy in Three Realignment Eras." American Journal of Political Science, 76: 333-360.
     
   • Benjamin Ginsberg. 1972. "Critical Elections and the Substance of Party Conflict: 1844-1968." Midwest Journal of Political Science, 16: 603-625.
     
     
   Recommended:
   
   
   • Gerring, John. 1998. Party Ideologies in America 1828 - 1996, pp. 125-160 and 187-231.
     
     
10. Change and Stability: Post World War II Politics
    
    Assignment:
    
    
    • Schattschneider, The Semisovereign People
      
    • Fiorina, Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment
      
    • McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal, Polarized America: The Dance of Political Ideology and Economic Inequality
      
      
    Recommended:
    
    
    • Gerring, John. 1998. Party Ideologies in America 1828 - 1996, pp. 232-286.
      
    • Perlstein, Rick. 2001. Before The Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
      
      
11. The Future of American Politics
    
    

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