American Political Thought Since The Civil War

Professor Wilson Carey McWilliams
and Susan J. McWilliams

Haverford College - Spring 2005

Syllabus (PDF | TXT)

For background, the syllabus for POLS 266: American Political Thought Founding to Civil War may be a useful starting place.

Lecture Recordings

Lecture 1 (January 17th, 2005)
Intro; Review of Course and Readings; Civil War's Effect on American Thought.
32kbps MP3 Recording (15MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (7MB)
Lecture 2 (January 19th, 2005)
The Gilded Age and the Changing Notion of Progress
The mp3 of this lecture was damaged, and is just barely intelligible. You may download it anyway here (14MB) but you may find the lecture notes ( DOC | PDF ) more useful. If you happen to be able to repair mp3 files, please contact ayeats@h...
Lecture 3 (January 24th, 2005)
Henry Adams, William Sumner and the Notion of Political Corruption.
32kbps MP3 Recording (19MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (9MB)
Lecture 4 (January 26th, 2005)
William Sumner, Social Darwinism and Morality.
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 5 (January 31st, 2005)
William Sumner, Class, Government and War.
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 6 (February 2nd, 2005)
The Steel Chain of Ideas and the beginnings of Populism.
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 7 (February 7th, 2005)
Populism, Racism, The Wizard of Oz and the election of 1896.
Due to technical difficulties, a recording of this lecture was not made. Lecture notes ( DOC | PDF ) are posted as a poor substitute for the real thing.
Lecture 8 (February 9th, 2005)
Progressivism; Twain's "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg."
32kbps MP3 Recording (16MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (8MB)
Lecture 9 (February 14th, 2005)
Social Darwinism, Roosevelt and the Administrative Ideology
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 10 (February 16th, 2005)
Secondary Groups & other Problems; Different Types of Progressives
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 11 (February 21st, 2005)
Progressivism and W.E.B. DuBois.
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 12 (February 23rd, 2005)
W.E.B. DuBois and religion in African American history.
32kbps MP3 Recording (18MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (9MB)
Lecture -- (February 28th, 2005)
Class cancelled due to inclement weather.
Lecture 13 (March 2nd, 2005)
More on DuBois; Charlotte P. Gilman's Herland.
32kbps MP3 Recording (18MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (9MB)
Lecture 14 (March 14th, 2005)
32kbps MP3 Recording (18MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (9MB)
Lecture 15 (March 16th, 2005)
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 16 (March 21st, 2005)
There is no recoding available for this lecture.
Lecture 17 (March 23rd, 2005)
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
Lecture 18 (March 28th, 2005)
More on Dewey; Implications of Great Depression; Intro to New Deal
32kbps MP3 Recording (20MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (10MB)
March 30th, 2005

On March 29th, 2005, Wilson Carey McWilliams passed away. These lectures will remain available online. As time progresses, I hope to polish my lecture notes, as well as those from the first semester of this course (for which, sadly, there are no recordings), and post them in the hopes of making this material even more accessible.

Professor McWilliams' daughter Susan McWilliams, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, has heroically offered to lead the rest of this course in conjunction with several guest lecturers. The recordings, where possible, are available below.

--Andrew L. Yeats
Lecture 19 (April 6th, 2005)
Susan McWilliams
The Changing Notions of Liberalism and Conservatism
32kbps MP3 Recording (16MB)
16kbps MP3 Recording (8MB)
Lecture 20 (April 11th, 2005)
Chip Turner
Prologue to Invisible Man; Allusions to Hegel and Emerson
32kbps MP3 Recording (19MB)
8kbps MP3 Recording (5MB)
Lecture 21 (April 13th, 2005)
Chip Turner
More on Invisible Man
32kbps MP3 Recording (19MB)
8kbps MP3 Recording (5MB)
Lecture 22 (April 18th, 2005)
Susan McWilliams
Invisible Man: Plato, Freud, tragedy and the blues
32kbps MP3 Recording (19MB)
8kbps MP3 Recording (5MB)
Lecture 23 (April 20th, 2005)
Patrick Deneen
Kurt Vonnegut: Ancient v. Modern Tragedy and Comedy
32kbps MP3 Recording (15MB)
8kbps MP3 Recording (4MB)
Lecture 24 (April 25th, 2005)
Susan McWilliams
32kbps MP3 Recording (15MB)
8kbps MP3 Recording (4MB)
Lecture 25 (April 27th, 2005)
Susan McWilliams
The Third Republic: Labor-saving, Productivity and Its Effects.
32kbps MP3 Recording (15MB)
8kbps MP3 Recording (4MB)



This site was last updated by Andrew L. Yeats in April, 2005


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