Political Theory

Liberty and Diversity in the United States

ABSTRACT

Conferees evaluated the effectiveness of American political institutions in alleviating the tensions that inevitably arise in a free society from social differences along the spectrums of faith, economic interests, culture, and race. To what degree has e pluribus unum been achieved, and to what degree has it failed? Has the American experiment affirmed the viability of a society both free and diverse?

READING LIST

Conference Readings

Allen, W. B. and Gordon Lloyd, eds. The Essential Antifederalist, Second Edition. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002.

Dreisbach, Daniel L. and Mark David Hall, eds. The Sacred Rights of Conscience: Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations in the American Founding. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2009.

Rossum, Ralph A. and G. Alan Tarr, eds. American Constitutional Law, Volumes 1 and 2. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2014.

Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. Binghamton, New York: Yale University, 1972.

Chavez, Linda. Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation. New York: Basic Books, 1991.

Douglass, Frederick. “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1876.” TeachingAmericanHistory.org. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/oration-in-memory-of-abraham-lincoln/ (January 19, 2016).

Du Bois, W. E. B. “The Conservation of Races, 1897.” TeachingAmericanHistory.org. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-conservation-of-races/ (January 19, 2016).

DuBois, W. E. B. “Of Our Spiritual Strivings, 1903.” TeachingAmericanHistory.org. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/of-our-spiritual-strivings/ (January 19, 2016).

Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Franklin, Benjamin. Benjamin Franklin Writings. Edited by J. A. Leo Lemay. New York: The Library of America by Penguin, 1987.

Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. The Federalist: The Gideon Edition. Edited by George W. Carey and James McClellan. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2001.

Huntington, Samuel P. Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

Jefferson, Thomas. The Portable Thomas Jefferson. Edited by Merrill D. Peterson. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

Kessner, Thomas. The Golden Door: Italian and Jewish Immigrant Mobility in New York City, 1880-1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. “I Have a Dream Speech, August 28, 1963.” TeachingAmericanHistory.org. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/i-have-a-dream-speech/ (January 19, 2016).

Lincoln, Abraham. “Speech at Chicago, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, July 10, 1858; also called ’The Electric Chord Speech’.” TeachingAmericanHistory.org. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-at-chicago-illinois/ (January 20, 2016).

Malcolm X. “Message to Grassroots, November 10, 1963.” TeachingAmericanHistory.org. http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/message-to-grassroots/ (January 19, 2016).

McDonald, Forrest. E Pluribus Unum: The Formation of the American Republic, 1776–1790. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 1979.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Edited by Eduardo Nolla. Translated by James T. Schleifer. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, Inc., 2010.