91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳

This seminar explores two key texts of American democracy – W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction (1935) and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835, 1840). During the semester, we will consider and compare Du Bois’s and Tocqueville’s analyses of the nature of democracy and of its promises, challenges, and contradictions. Issues and questions we address will include: the meanings of equality; the relationship of social to political democracy; the threat of democratic despotism and tyranny; and the ways that race, empire, and emancipation reshape the theory and practice of democracy. We will also explore these works as texts of political philosophy; specifically, we will attend to their intellectual contexts, historical and sociological methodologies, literary and political strategies, and normative and philosophical ambitions. This discussion-based seminar will culminate in a 15-page research paper.