Spring 2004

GOV 381L • Voices of Citizenship

Course Description

Course Description: This seminar explores how communication is used by citizens to construct their political communities. We will ask: Is the United States one nation or many nations? Have the people’s communal instincts changed over time? Do we still really listen to one another? Is nationalism needed in a new, global village? Is patriotism the hobgoblin of little minds? Do the mass media help us understand ourselves as a people? Has the proliferation of political enclaves in the U.S. unraveled the nation?

Grading Policy

Grading: A few short papers (20%), a seminar presentation/guidance (20%), and a major term paper (60%).

Texts

Texts: Selections from such works as Robert Putnam and Lewis Feldstein’s Better Together: Restoring the American Community; Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities; Alan Wolfe’s One Nation After All; Michael Schudson’s The Good Citizen; Michael Hogan’s Rhetoric and Community; E.J. Dionne’s Community Works; Rogers Smith’s Stories of Peoplehood; John Freie’s Counterfeit Community; Nina Eliasoph’s Avoiding Politics; and Maurizio Viroli’s For Love of Country.

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