Where Are We?...  Why Are We Here?... What Have We Done?
(dedicated to Admiral James Stockdale)

updated 3 May 2009


Soundclip from the 1992
Vice Presidential Debate 
(thanks to Michael Harms, SMU/PLSC '03,  for technical assistance)

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3 May: End of the term information.  Check back periodically for updates to this announcement.

Your term papers have been read, evaluated, and graded.  You can pick them up on the filing cabinet between (and across from) my office (209 Carr Collins Hall) and Professor Simon's office (210 CCH).

The study questions for the final examination are posted under the assignments button on the Blackboard page.  I think you will find them tasty and satisfying.

 We will have a review session for the final.  It will be held on Sunday evening, 10 May, from 7-8 PM in the Tower Center Boardroom.

Office hours for the week of final exams are as follows..

Monday: 1-2 PM
Tuesday: 11 AM - 12 PM
Wednesday: 2-3 PM
Thursday, 11 AM - 12 PM
Friday, 2-3 PM

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8 April:  Here is the roadmap for the rest of the semester.  Your term paper is due 21 April.  There will be no extensions, so don't even ask... unless you want to incur my wrath, in which case ask away!

9 April:  Sumner and Bellamy

14 April:  Bellamy and Debs

16 April:  Washington, DuBois, and Goldman

21 April:  T. Roosevelt and Croly

23 April:   Croly and FDR

28 April:  The 1960s

30 April:  The Conservative Revival

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17 March:  Thursday, 19 March, I will return your midsemester exams, and then we will turn to the arguments of three liberals who criticized the emerging liberal, Jacksonian order, as insufficiently liberal: Thoreau, Stanton, and Douglas.  Be up to speed... it's a sprint from here on out.

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17 February:  Our "make up" class for 17 March -- optional, but you'd be foolish not to come if you don't have to work and can get here -- will be Saturday, 21 February, in the Tower Boardroom, from noon - 1:30 PM (so Mr. Perez can "haul ass" -- such a quaint expression -- to get to work at 2:00 PM).  The Boardroom is located at the north end (closest to Daniel Rd.) of the Political Science Suite on the second floor of Carr Collins Hall.  Dress will be informal; discussion, intense.

For a rough rule of thumb, be through all of the assigned Federalist Papers by Saturday, and have the Kobylka/Carter piece in tow by Tuesday's class.  Our order of progression will be as follows:

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13 February:  We will finish our discussions of Adams on Tuesday, and then turn to the Federalist Papers.  Those who have conceptual critiques on the Madison, please submit them to the Blackboard page (see posting from 10 February) by 12:30 PM, Sunday, 15 February; those with Hamilton, by 12:30 PM, Tuesday, 17 February.  Use the "Score Card for Thinkers You Read" Word file (on Blackboard) to prepare your critique.

Also, note the following:

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10 February:  Humans, a few class-relevant GPS points for you:

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3 February:  I couldn't help but notice a certain slack-jawed dullness about most of you today.  I don't know if it is because you aren't reading, aren't reading closely, or are just transfixed by my melodious baritone.  Regardless, this should stop.  As explained in the first class and on the syllabus, I expect active engagement.  Not only is it factored directly into your grade, but it will appear indirectly as well as you won't fully understand the material and this will be come clear on papers and in exams.

Apparently, being enrolled in the class is an insufficient incentive for some of you to do the hard work required to be a student in it.  Too many of you appear to be content to stay chained to the wall of the cave.  To give you a greater incentive to act like college students, I will randomly collect "score card" sheets on thinkers of my choosing in lieu of giving a quiz that day.  If you have one and it is filled out well -- information, page cites, brief quotes -- you will do well.  If you don't, you will get a zero (0) for the quiz.

This is basic and it almost insults you to have to say it, but if you are in class you should be prepared.  I only say it because it appears that some of you need to be insulted.  Better now than when you access Access.smu in May.

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28 January:  Since we won't be in one another's company until next Tuesday, a few points to note.

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24 January: A couple of things.  First, be sure to have all the readings under II.A. (Early Colonial) on the syllabus done for class on Tuesday, 27 January.  Second , if you have not done so already, go to and take the "Political Compass" quiz and send me the resulting coordinates in an email.  (This is also noted under the assignments button on Blackboard, along with further instructions.  If you do not get me your results by Thursday, 29 January, you will start losing 2 points for every day you are late.  Third, this might be a good time to direct you to a piece I wrote on "Discernment" last semester.  Its genesis was in student reaction to the grading of the essays on their mid-semester exam.  You might find its discussion instructive, because I don't vary my expectations -- only my subject matter -- over classes.  Fourth, those of you pondering law school might find the new addition to the "I Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now" page by Ben Hatch, SMU '07, as well as the contributions of other alumni, quite instructive.  Finally, remember we will not have class on Thursday because it is Monday... here, at any rate.

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20 January: Humans... we are off and running.  For those of you who did not turn in 2 copies of your "student contract," make sure that you bring them to class on Thursday, 22 January.  If these are not turned in by Monday, 26 January, you will begin losing points.  If they are not turned in by then, you will start losing 2 points for each day they are late.  Remember, this is almost like a college class.  The onus is on you.

As to reading for Thursday's class: Read the introductory information in Dolbeare, and his selections from John Winthrop.  On the Blackboard readings page, read the "Mayflower Compact" and Winthrop's "Christian Experience."  As you read them, keep in mind the "Currency of Concepts" handout.  How do these texts define and use the core concepts of political theory.

Finally, if you've not signed up for the thinker on whom you will do your "conceptual critique," do so pronto as slots are being filled.  If I don't have a thinker from you (follow the instructions on the webpage) by 29 January, I will assign you a thinker and debit you 5 points for not following instructions. This isn't rocket science (if it was, I couldn't do it), but it does require you to accept your responsibilities and take them seriously.  The onus, again and forever, is on you.  It's almost like real life.

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7 January: For our first class, I ask you to read Plato's "Cave" -- from the seventh book of The Republic -- and write a one-page discussion of why I would assign it to you at the outset of a course on the history and development of American Political Thought.  It will be due at the beginning of class on 20 January.  Late papers will only be accepted from students who added the class on or after that date.

Also, prior to the first class, please do the following:  First,  Look over the syllabus.  I will pass it out in class on the 20th, so you need not print it. However, I expect you to familiarize yourself with it.  I will take any questions about it at the end of class on Tuesday.  Second, familiarize yourself with the class's blackboard webpage.  Third, print and bring to class the "currency of concepts" hand/webout.  Fourth, print, read, sign, and turn in to me 2 copies of the "student contract" and hand it in to me with your brief essay on "the Cave."

See you in class Tuesday, 20 January, at 12:30 PM on the dot.

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