Christopher C. Burkett

POLSC 370B / HIST 352: THE AMERICAN FOUNDING

The purpose of this course is to better understand the American political constitution

(understood in the classical sense as the sum of the component parts of which a whole thing is

comprised) as it was during the Founding Era. Through an examination of writings and

documents from that time, we will consider the foundational ideas – namely, Nature, History and

Religion – that influenced and animated American political life during the Founding Era and into

the early nineteenth century.

Contrary to the claims of some recent scholars, the American Founding did not simply

represent an extension of British political and social customs. The American Founding was

strongly influenced by a backward-looking appeal to political traditions (Classical

Republicanism, for example) and a forward-looking religious identity (for example that America

was the land of God’s chosen people). The American Founding, however, was unique among all

previous foundings because it represented a conscious act of “reflection and choice,” to borrow a

phrase from Hamilton, as Americans turned to a particular understanding of Nature as both the

justification for their independence and the standard for justice in their political order. The

American way of life – or the regime, as it used to be called – was understood to be compatible

with political and moral laws derived from what was knowable about the nature of human life,

and particularly of human nature. The turn toward Nature affected not only our political

institutions, but nearly every aspect of what Jefferson called “the American mind,” including

education, religious liberty, the family, and political equality.

This foundation on Nature provided Americans with a coherent framework for their political

way of life; without a proper understanding of this framework, it is difficult to comprehend how

Founding Era Americans could possibly justify what seem to be utter contradictions in the eyes

of contemporary Americans. How, for example, could a regime founded on the idea of natural

equality allow for the development of actual inequality? How could men and women be

considered equal when they did not enjoy the same political privileges? How was it that not all

men could vote in a political system that claimed to be based on the principle of consent? It is

with an eye to answering these and other questions that we will engage in our pursuit to

understand the nature of “the American mind” during the Founding Era.

Fall 2008 Course Plan

Fall 2008 Reading Packet

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