BASC64133 - Alumni Sequence: The American Tradition Year I

Course Description

The spring quarter examines the fault line in the founding of the United States, the legacy of racism, exploitation and slavery that would eventuate in the Civil War and continue to haunt the country to the present day—and on the other hand the distinctively American humanism, democratic spirit, and sense of justice that would motivate the struggle for inclusion and unity. In the seminar we will read Bartolomeo de las Casas’ account of colonial atrocities; Frederick Douglass’s pointed autobiography, which catalyzed the abolitionist movement; and Walt Whitman’s epic-lyric attempt to poetically bring together the country he saw splitting apart. In the tutorial we consider Lincoln’s speeches and his deft, brilliant and at times wily efforts to rhetorically steer the states toward a new unity.

Course Outline

Reading List

De las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Penguin; ISBN: 978-0140445626

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass: The Complete 1855 and 1891-92 Editions. Library of America. ISBN: 978-1598530971

The Portable Frederick Douglass, Penguin Classics, ISBN: 978-0143106814

Lincoln’s Selected Writings, ed. David S. Reynolds, W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN: 978-0393921793

The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 978-0226020846