Smith College's Moodle

The political thought of the 19th century was directed towards understanding and shaping the clashing waves of human emancipation and reaction that defined the era. From the republican revolutions at the end of the 18^th century to the struggles over labor at the end of the 19^th, powerful forces both receded in the face of struggles for freedom and subsequently overwhelmingly flowed against them. All the while, political thinkers – themselves often engaged in these struggles – attempted to describe and shape these clashes to their own ends. For them, this era brought forth a “world that is totally new” (Tocqueville) and a condition in which the human “spirit has broken with the world it has hitherto inhabited and imagined” (Hegel). Accordingly, 19^th century political theorists took it as their task to develop a new, modern understanding of political life, which would not “draw its poetry from the past, but only from the future” (Marx). Struggles for freedom opened the 19^th century, but what would be the meaning and extent of that freedom?

In this course, we will read classic texts by some of these thinkers from the European and American contexts by focusing on four major themes which define the four parts of the course. The first part of the course will read three theorists who respectively celebrated, rejected, or reconciled themselves to the new political world which followed the French Revolution. The next part will turn our attention to the American context. After two short pieces by European theorists that attempt to define the spirit of modernity, we will read political texts from three figures of the Transcendentalist movement who each attempted to understand the spiritual life of the individual in modern politics. The third part of the course will analyze the tensions of freedom and slavery in 19^th century America, one of the most important settings for the struggle over the meaning of modern freedom. Finally, the last part will take up texts that consider the meaning and possible extent of emancipation, particularly with respect to labor and gender. During each of these parts we will be concerned with the same set of questions that beguiled the 19^th century, but with different priority given in each module. What is the spirit of revolution? What is the meaning of modernity? What is the full experience of freedom and why do some claim that it requires the unfreedom of others? And how would it be possible to bring about a full, complete form of human emancipation? These questions are not be merely antiquarian but are also aimed towards gaining a better understanding of the tensions of freedom and unfreedom which still persist in our own world today. 

Finally, the assignment structure for this course will include regular participation, four short reflective essays, and a research paper. Please see the tentative syllabus uploaded here for more details.