POLI 7706 The American Founding

The subject of this seminar is the founding of the United States, but the seminar's focus is political thought, not constitutional development as such. The revolutionary and constitutional debates displayed a notable sensitivity to, and interest in, questions of a philosophical nature. We will explore these ideas by beginning at the beginning, with the early colonies and the political debates their governments inspired, taking as our cue Tocqueville's claim that it was the Puritans who founded America. We will then examine the debates around the Revolution, the Constitutional Convention, and the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debates which the Constitution inspired.