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Region 7, NYC Department of Education, Syllabus

August 5-9, 13-16, 2007
The United States Constitution:
Its Construction, Ratification, & Early Implementation

Note: We strongly recommend that participants arrive for the Summer Seminar having completed all assigned readings. Readings marked with an asterisk (*) are in your binder.


Monday, August 6th (Jeffrey Poelvoorde)

Topic I: What are the Principles of the Declaration of Independence?
    Readings:
  • * Founders' Constitution [FC hereafter]: 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Locke, Gordon, Montesquieu, Hume, Otis); 3:1, 2, 3, 4 (Sidney, Locke, Blackstone, Adams)
  • Declaration of Independence (in The Federalist, 495-99)
  • Garry Wills, Inventing America
  • * Michael Zuckert, The Natural Rights Republic, 13-34, 71-72
Topic II: What is the nature of the American Union?
    Readings:
  • *FC 7:1, 2, 4 (Albany Plan, Franklin on the Albany Plan, Continental Congress's Transmittal of proposed Articles of Confederation)
  • Madison's Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention: May 14-30, June 15-19, 25-30, July 23, August 6, 31, Sept 10-11, 12-17
  • The Constitution, Preamble, Article VII (in appendix to The Federalist)
  • The Federalist, Nos. 1-3, 9-16
  • Akhil Amar, America's Constitution: A Biography, Chapter 1
  • Herbert Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For, Chs. 1-5

Tuesday, August 7th (Jeffrey Poelvoorde)

Topic I: How does the Constitution unite Nation and States?
    Readings:
  • *FC 8:1, 13, 25, 26, 28, 31, 34, 40 (Montesquieu, Federal Farmer, Brutus, Federal Farmer, Brutus, Brutus, Madison)
  • Madison's Notes: June 8, 11-14, 20-22, July 2-18, Sept 1-3
  • The Constitution, Articles IV, V, VI
  • The Federalist, Nos. 22, 32, 33, 39-46
  • *Michael Zuckert, "Federalism and the Founding"
  • *Herbert Storing, "The Problem of Big Government"
  • *Diamond, Martin, "What the Framers Meant by Federalism"
Topic II: What is the separation of powers?
    Readings:
  • *FC 10:2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11
  • Madison's Notes: June 2, 4, 6, 23, July 20, 21; August 15
  • The Federalist, Nos. 47-51
  • Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For, Chs. 6-7
Topic III: The Classical Period and the Sonata Form (Floyd Grave)
    Readings:
  • *Bonds, A History of Music in Western Culture, "The Classical Era," pp. 276-285.
  • *Pestelli, The Age of Mozart and Beethoven, "Instrumental Music," pp.1-18.
  • Storr, Music and the Mind, pp. 81-84.
  • *Rothstein, Emblems of Mind, pp. 118-121.


Wednesday, August 8th (Jeffrey Poelvoorde)

Topic I: What is the proper construction of the legislative power?
    Readings:
  • *FC 12: 1, 2, 3, 11, 23; 13:20, 22, 23, 24, 31
  • Madison Notes: May 31, June 6, 7, 9, 19, 20, 28, 29, August 7-30
  • The Constitution, Article I
  • The Federalist, Nos. 52-66
  • Amar, America's Constitution, Chs. 2-3
Topic II: What is a "republican executive?"
    Readings:
  • Madison Notes: June 1-4, July 19-21, 24-26, September 4-8
  • The Constitution, Article II
  • The Federalist, Nos. 67-77
  • Amar, America's Constitution, Ch. 4


Thursday, July 9th (Jeffrey Poelvoorde)

Topic I: What is the constitutional function of the judiciary?
    Readings:
  • Madison's Notes: June 5, July 18,
  • The Constitution, Article III
  • The Federalist, Nos. 78-83
Topic II: How does the Constitution protect individual rights?
    Readings:
  • Madison's Notes: Sept. 12 ff.
  • The Constitution, Article I, Sections 9, 10; Article IV, Section 1; Amendments 1-IX, III-XIV
  • The Federalist, No. 84
  • Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For, Ch. 8
Topic III: What kind of American community does the Constitution encourage?
    Readings:
  • FC 4:2, 3, 33 (Montesquieu, Hume, Jefferson)
  • Storing, What the Anti-Federalists Were For, Ch. 9


Monday, August 13th: The Constitutional Crisis of the New Republic: 1789-1800 (Paul Moreno)
Focus Questions:
What provoked the Federalists to enact the Alien and Sedition Acts? What justification did they provide for them? What were the principal objections that the Jeffersonians made? What was the constitutional theory behind the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions? How was the conflict between the Federalists and Republicans resolved?
Tuesday, August 14th: Alexander Hamilton and the American Financial Revolution (Richard Sylla)

    Reading:
  • Darren Staloff, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding - Read only Chapter 1.
  • *Richard Sylla, "Hamilton and the Federalist Financcial Revolution, 1789-1795," The New-York Journal of American History 45, 3 (Spring 2004), 32-39.
Focus Questions:


How did his experience during the War of Independence turn Captain Hamilton of the NY Artillery company from the radical idealist he was in 1775-1776 into the practical realist that we see in Lt. Col. Hamilton of the Continental Army in 1780-1781?

Why did Hamilton (in Staloff's view) see the three foundations of government in Finance, Interest (as in self-interest and group interests), and Public Opinion?

Why was Hamilton so successful, despite strong opposition, in bringing about the US financial revolution as Treasury Secretary during 1789-1795?

What exactly was the financial revolution? What effect did it have on US economic growth and development?

Because parts of Hamilton's financial system were dismantled after he left the scene, some (eg, Rahe) argue that he failed. Do you agree? (Think about our current financial system, and compare it with Hamilton's.)

Toward the end of Chapter 1, Staloff (125-26) makes two seemingly clashing points: first, "By almost any measure, Alexander Hamilton was the most important figure in the founding of the American republic," and second, "Despite his myriad accomplishments and larger-than-life legacy, Hamilton is perhaps the least loved founding father." Do you agree with both of these? One of them? Neither? Why?



Wednesday, August 15th: Trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Architecture and Material Culture circa 1789; Fairmont Park Houses; Christ Church; and Elfreth's Ally, the nation's oldest residential street

Thursday, August 16th: Material Things in Early America: Refinement, Civility, and Simplicity (Robert St. George)
    Readings:
  • *David E. Shi, The Simple Life, pp 74-124
  • *John Styles and Amanda Vickery, ed., Gender, Taste, and Material Culture in Britain and North America, "Reading Spaces in Eighteenth-Century New England," Robert Blair St. George, pp. 81-105.
  • Richard Bushman, The Refinement of America (Knopf, 1993), 3-29, 207-352.