You must summarize
the main ideas presented in two of the primary sources listed below.
Each of your summaries must be at least two pages long
(double-spaced, one-inch margins, eleven- or twelve-point
type). You may use the thesis statement provided for
each of the sources, or you may write one on your own.
Please note that the thesis statement is the only part of
the summary that you may copy; the rest of the summary must
be your own work. Although you may quote from the text
if it is absolutely necessary, the purpose of the exam is to
test your ability to synthesize and convey ideas and
information. Consequently, you must summarize the
central ideas presented in each source in your own words.
Remember that you will be graded
according to your ability to write college-level prose.
Thus your work should be factually accurate and free of
grammatical and logical errors. Please consult the
Term Paper Checklist to find and correct common errors
before you submit your exam. Minor mistakes will not
be held against you, but if your exam indicates that you did
not proofread carefully, your grade will be much lower than
you might have expected. Students whose summaries
indicate that they put considerable time into reviewing and
proofreading can expect to earn the highest grades.
After you choose the two sources that you
plan to summarize, be sure to review the relevant readings
included on the
Background Information page for American Political
Thought. You do not have to read all of the secondary
readings included under each unit heading, but browsing
through them will help you gain a better understanding of
the primary texts.
Midterm Exam
Due Date for Spring 2011: March 24
1. Ideas of the
Founders
James Madison's Federalist No. 10 is
generally recognized as one of the most influential essays
in American political thought. In relatively few
pages, Madison articulated a vision of peaceful political
and economic interaction that not only helped to promote the
ratification of the Constitution, but also inspired modern
conceptions of interest-group liberalism. By
summarizing Madison's theory of factional competition, this essay will
provide some insight into his enduring vision of government.
Today, we routinely describe the United
States as a democratic country. However, an
examination of James Madison's Federalist No. 10 shows that
the men who crafted the U.S. Constitution did not see
themselves as establishing a democratic system. By
summarizing the distinctions Madison drew between democratic
and republican forms of government, this essay will provide
some insight into the anti-democratic aspects of late
eighteenth-century American political thought.
In the Declaration of Independence,
Thomas Jefferson famously declared, "all men are created
equal." However, one of the great ironies of American
history is that Jefferson, whose words inspired so many
people to work towards increasing political equality, was
himself a slave-owner. By culling details of
Jefferson's personal involvement in slavery from various
sources, this essay will provide some insight into the
contradictions that characterized his contributions to the
development of democracy in the United States.
2. American
Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance"
contains so many famous lines that it has become one of the
great contributions to American literature that is, as the
saying goes, often quoted, but seldom read. However,
looking closely
"Self-Reliance" allows us to see more clearly why his
exaltation of the individual played such a central role in
the development of American political thought.
By summarizing a few of Emerson's observations in
"Self-Reliance," this essay will provide some insight into
his highly influential contribution to popular conceptions
of individual freedom in the United States.
Henry David Thoreau expressed so
much disdain for politics in
"Resistance to Civil Government" that many of his readers
have concluded that he must have been an an anarchist.
However, an examination of the political vision outlined in
"Resistance to Civil Government" shows that he can be more
accurately described as a political idealist. By
summarizing the contrast that he drew between
government as it existed in his time and government as it
could be if individuals committed themselves to self-reform,
this essay will provide some insight into Thoreau's idealistic
conception of politics.
3. Abolitionism
American abolitionists sometimes
gloried in their dedication to ending
the scourge of slavery. However, through a series of
brilliant rhetorical moves in his famous address, "What to
the Slave Is the Fourth of July?," Frederick Douglass
punctured any sense of complacency that his anti-slavery
audience might have enjoyed. By summarizing the
devices Douglass used to lay the burden of slavery directly
on his listeners, this essay will provide some insight into
his conviction that Northern abolitionists had to accept
personal responsibility for the continuing existence of
slavery in the Southern states.
Like Frederick Douglass, Henry David
Thoreau rejected the idea that the North could somehow
escape the corrupting effects of slavery by confining it to
the Southern states. In "Slavery in Massachusetts," an
address given in Framingham in 1854, his central argument
was that the poison of slavery could not be contained.
By summarizing Thoreau's accusations against his neighbors
and fellow citizens, this essay will provide some insight
into his contention that all would remain in bondage as long
as slavery existed anywhere in the United States.
At the close
of the first national conference on women's rights, which was held in Seneca Falls, New York
in 1848, sixty-two women and thirty-eight men signed the
Declaration of Sentiments. Although the demand that women be granted
the right to vote was the most controversial resolution, a
summary of the other issues raised in the Declaration shows
that the signers' vision of equal rights reached far beyond
politics into every sphere of life.
Before the Civil War, women's rights
advocates such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony played a central role in the abolitionist movement.
However, after black men formally gained the right to vote in 1870, Stanton and
other champions of woman suffrage concluded that they had
been betrayed. In "The Women's
Rights Movement and Its Champions in the United States,"
Stanton did not deal directly with the
break between anti-slavery forces and supporters of women
suffrage. Nonetheless, a summary of Stanton's critical
comments on the men who had led the campaign against slavery
illustrates the increasing friction between
abolitionists and proponents of women's rights in the
aftermath of the Civil War.
4. Industry and Empire
Henry David Thoreau's "Life Without
Principle" is generally seen as a critique of the increasing
materialism and crass commercialism that he believed had
overtaken American society in the industrial age.
However, one of the most striking aspects of this work is
his biting commentary on the ostensibly mind-numbing
consequences of reading newspapers. By summarizing
Thoreau's condemnation of the popular press in "Life Without
Principle," this essay will show why he should be
placed among the first media critics in
the United States.
At first glance,
Andrew Carnegie’s "Gospel of Wealth" might seem to
anticipate the late twentieth-century idea that the best
way to achieve general prosperity is to wait for wealth to
trickle down from the top to the bottom of the social scale.
However, a summary of Carnegie's advice to the
rich shows that his doctrine of economic
paternalism required the wealthy to practice a level of
generosity that would be dismissed as entirely unrealistic
in present-day American society.
On the one hand, like many Social
Darwinists in the late nineteenth century, Andrew Carnegie
viewed industrial capitalism as a natural system that would
be undermined by government intervention. On the other
hand, he believed that unrestricted competion produced
a corrupting concentration of wealth at the top of
the social scale. A summary of Carnegie's "Gospel of
Wealth" accordingly shows that however deep his commitment
to capitalism might have been, his main concern was to
overcome what he saw as its morally unacceptable results.
5. Commercialization,
Mass Communications, and the Cult of Domesticity
Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren's
"The Right to Privacy" provides profound insight into the
social anxieties induced by the rise of mass communications
during the industrial age. By summarizing Brandeis and
Warren's concerns about the expanding use of the telegraph
and instantaneous photography, this essay will show how
technological innovation was often interpreted as a threat
to individual freedom in late nineteenth-century American
society.
Edward J. Phelps' "The Age of Words,"
which was originally published in 1889, is not much
remembered today. However, Phelps' complaints about
the explosion of print publications during the late
nineteenth century illustrates remarkable parallels between
the industrial era and the digital age. More
specifically, a summary of major points made in "The Age of
Words" shows that the development of high-speed printing in
Phelps' time inspired social anxieties that have much in
common with twentieth- and twenty-first century concerns
about the information overload induced by digital
technologies.
