American Political Thought
Engage key texts that have helped shape the political idea – and political ideals – of America.
The series of newspaper essays collectively known as The Federalist are rightly regarded as classics of American political thought. Standing alone, however, they are only one half of a notable conversation. We will try to uncover the differing presuppositions, hopes, and fears of those who debated whether to replace the existing Articles of Confederation with the proposed Constitution of the United States.
Images: Albert Herter, Signing of the American Constitution, mural, 1916 | Junius Brutus Stearns, Washington at Constitutional Convention of 1787, oil on canvas, 1856
Ralph Lerner on liberty in the Declaration of Independence
Faculty
Ralph Lerner
Ralph Lerner is the Benjamin Franklin Professor Emeritus in the College and professor emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He is the author, most recently, of Naïve Readings: Reveilles Political and Philosophic (University of Chicago Press).
Ralph Lerner
Ralph Lerner is the Benjamin Franklin Professor Emeritus in the College and Professor Emeritus in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
His books include The Founders’ Constitution (co-edited with Philip B. Kurland), The Thinking Revolutionary: Principle and Practice in the New Republic, Revolutions Revisited: Two Faces of the Politics of Enlightenment, and Maimonides’ Empire of Light: Popular Enlightenment in an Age of Belief. He is the author, most recently, of Naïve Readings: Reveilles Political and Philosophic.
He attended public school in Chicago, received his degrees in political science at the University of Chicago, and had a year of post-graduate study of medieval Hebrew at the University of Cambridge. He has served in the U.S. Army. All of his teaching has been at the University of Chicago, apart from visiting appointments at Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard universities and a visiting lectureship at the Institut Raymond Aron. He has received fellowship awards from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Humanities Center. He has received a Quantrell Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
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A New Kind of Republic
Readings:
- Federalist, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 9, 14, 37
- Herbert Storing, The Anti-Federalist Papers, Introduction
- Anti-Federalist, Federal Farmer 1, 5, 6
- Anti-Federalist, Agrippa 4
Discussion Questions:
- What are some of the competing visions of public happiness that are implicit in these debates over America’s political organization?
- How might one account for there still being disagreement, even after securing independence from Britain, whether the thirteen colonies—now states—ought to be a single nation?
Federal vs. Consolidated Government
Readings:
- Federalist, Nos. 15, 23, 39
- Anti-Federalist, Federal Farmer 16, 17
- Anti-Federalist, Brutus 1
- Anti-Federalist, Pennsylvania Minority
Discussion Questions:
- Are the anxieties voiced by those who criticized the proposed constitution better understood as expressions of parochialism, pessimism about human nature, realism, or something else?
- Are the supporters of the proposed constitution excessive in trusting that the structures built into its framework will suffice to prevent tyrannical rule, be it of the government or of the governed?
Representation
Readings:
- Federalist, Nos. 10, 35, 56
- Anti-Federalist, Federal Farmer 7
- Anti-Federalist, Brutus 3, 4
- Anti-Federalist, Melancton Smith
Discussion Questions:
- Can a system of representation ever be and remain representative? And what exactly ought to be represented?
- Are there better and worse ways of enlisting the talents of an elite in political life? Consider some alternatives.
Ambition and Its Discontents
Readings:
Discussion Questions:
- How might one channel ambition without driving it out of politics altogether?
- Does the debate over the proposed constitution presume too much about the character of the American public both at the time and in the future?
