Professor Michael DeBow (Law)
            726-2434  --  Robinson Hall #216
Professor Dennis Sansom (Religion & Philosophy)
            726-2839  --  Chapman Hall #215
 

                                                        LINKS

Core Texts
    Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776)      excerpts
         full text (searchable)
         full text
    U.S. Constitution  link
        The Founders' Constitution -- A fantastic resource, canvassing the documentary history of
            the U.S. Constitution.    link
    Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1840)   full-text (searchable)
         C-SPAN's Tocqueville page
         C-SPAN interview of Harvey Mansfield (recent translator/editor)   link
    George Washington, "Farewell Address" (1796) link
Empirical/Quantitative Studies
    O'Driscoll, Holmes & Kirkpatrick, 2000 Index of Economic Freedom    excerpts
    Gwartney & Lawson, Economic Freedom of the World: 1997 Annual Report    link
    Gwartney & Lawson, Economic Freedom of the World: 1998/99 Interim Report   excerpts
    Gwartney & Lawson, Economic Freedom of the World: 2000 Annual Report   link
    Economic Freedom Network   link
    Caplow, Hicks & Wattenberg, The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in
        America, 1900-2000  link    PBS program based on book
    Public opinion polling sites:
         General Social Survey
           another site
            conducted by National Opinion Research Center, U. of Chicago  link
         Washington Post polling site  includes a good links page, pointing to polls conducted by
            the major TV networks and national newspapers, and the Roper, Gallup, Pew, Zogby polls.
Other Internet Resources
    Professor DeBow's links page contains more than 300 links to sites dealing primarily with
        economic, political, legal and philosophical topics.    link
    Dictionary of Key Terms for a Free and Virtuous Society is a very useful glossary,
        compiled by Stephen Grabill and Gregory Gronbacher for the Acton Institute for the Study of
        Religion and Liberty. link
    Is America Number One?: The Success and Failure of Societies, an interesting ABC News
        special, hosted by John Stossel, aired in September 1999.   transcript
    Survey of the 20th Century appeared in the September 11, 1999, issue of The Economist
        magazine.   link
    Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, documents from the Library of
        Congress.   link
 

                             COURSE OUTLINE (AND MORE LINKS!)

I.  The Market Economy: Engine of Prosperity  --  February 6, 8.
    Gwartney & Stroup, What Everyone Should Know About Economics and Prosperity
        webbed text  ("adapted for Canadian readers," but don't worry about that)
    Michael Boskin, "Capitalism and its Discontents" (Hoover Institution, 1998)    link
    David Frum, "Adam Smith, the sensible philosopher" (The New Criterion, 1996)   link
    Stephen Moore & Julian Simon, "The Greatest Century That Ever Was: 25 Miraculous
        Trends of the Past 100 Years" (Cato Institute, 1999) link
    Skim the studies of economic freedom by O'Driscoll et al. and Gwartney & Lawson, the website
        of the Economic Freedom Network, and the book by Caplow, Hicks & Wattenberg, shown in
        the "Empirical/Quantitative Studies" list, above.

II.  The Recent History of Prosperity  --  February 13, 15, 20.
    Samuelson, The Good Life and Its Discontents, chapters 1-8 & Appendix II (pp. 3-137,
        269-285)
    Tom Wolfe, "The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening"   excerpts
Further reading:
    Fukuyama, The Great Disruption author's web site (includes excerpt from chapter 1 and data
        tables referred to in the book)
        Reviews of Fukuyama: Charles Murray
           Douglass North
           David Brooks
           American Spectator
    Brian Anderson, "Captialism and the Suicide of Culture" (First Things, February 2000)   link
            A provacative review essay of Fukuyama, John Gray (see below), and Francois Furet, The
            Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century (U. of
            Chicago Press)
    Brad DeLong's draft of The Economic History of the Twentieth Century: Slouching Towards Utopia?  webbed text
    Anthony Giddens, "Runaway World: How Globalisation Is Reshaping Our Lives"
         (lectures by the director of the London School of Economics, 1999)  transcripts
    John Gray, False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism (New Press, 1999)
    John Mueller, Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery (Princeton U
        Press, 1999)
    Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies author's web site
    Richard A. Easterlin, "The Worldwide Standard of Living Since 1800"  (Journal of Economic
        Perspectives, Winter 2000)

III.  Prosperity and the Judeo-Christian Tradition  --  February 22, 27, March 1, 6, 8, 13.
    Interview of James Q. Wilson (Religion and Liberty, July/Aug.1999) link
    Papal encyclical, The Hundredth Year (1991)   link
           summary
    Novak, On Cultivating Liberty  summary
    Harvey Cox, "The Market as God" (Atlantic Monthly, March 1999)    link
    Glenn Tinder, "Can We Be Good Without God?" (Atlantic Monthly, 1989)  link
Further reading:
    Novak's bio & his Boyer Lecture: "God's Country, or Taking the Declaration Seriously"
         Novak's autobiographical essay (First Things, April 1999)
    Paul Heyne, "Moral Misunderstanding and the Justification of Markets"
        (1998)  link
    Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1978 Harvard speech linkanother link
    Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty link
        Acton's journals on-line: Religion and Liberty   Journal of Markets & Morality
    James B. Twitchell, Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism
        (Columbia U Press, 1999)
    Albert O. Hirschman
    P.J. Hill
    Luke Johnson
    Ronald H. Nash, Poverty and Wealth: The Christian Debate over Capitalism (Crossway
        Books, 1986)  BR115.E3
    M. Douglas Meeks, God the Economist: The Doctrine of God and Political Economy
        (Fortress Press, 1989)  BR115.E3
    Donald A. Hay, Economics Today: A Christian Critique (Eerdmans 1991)  BR115.E3
    Robert H. Nelson, Reaching for Heaven on Earth: The Theological Meaning of
        Economics (Rowman & Littlefield, 1991)   HB75.N428
    Norman Barry, Business Ethics (Purdue U. Press, 1999)

IV.  Prosperity and Politics  --  March 15, 20, 22, April 3, 5.
    Brief discussion of the American Founding and the U.S. Constitution; Samuelson Appendix II
        (pp. 257-268).
 Richard John Neuhaus, "The Two Politics of Election 2000" (First Things, Feb. 2001)  link (read
        down to heading "When Bishops Speak")
 Christopher DeMuth, "After the Ascent: Politics and Government in the Super-Affluent
        Society" (Feb. 2000) link
 A.   To what extent have Americans "lost faith" in government?
        Hart-Teeter 1999 poll, "Americans Unplugged: Citizens and Their Government"
        Pew Trust 1999 poll, "Americans Look to the 21st Century"
        Pew Trust 1999 poll, "Public Perspectives on the American Century"
        Pew Trust 1997-98 poll, "Deconstructing Distrust: How Americans View Government"
        Pew Trust 1996 poll
        Intellectual Capital (1998)
B.    What is the nature of "third way" politics?
        Tony Blair and Charles Krauthammer in Wash. Post, Sept. 27 and Oct. 2, 1998
        Economist link
        Heritage link
        Commentary link
        most recent Economist story (Nov. 30, 1999?)
C.    What, if anything, does the public reaction to the Lewinski scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton tell us about our political culture and third way politics?  What's next?
        "Symposium: Clinton, the Country, and the Political Culture" (Commentary Magazine,
            January 1999)   link
        Richard John Neuhaus, "Bill Clinton and the American Character" (First Things,
            June 1999)   link
        David Gelernter commentary in N.Y. Post    9-17-98
           1-7-99
           2-11-99
           5-13-99
        "Public changes mind on impeachment"  (USA Today, Dec. 17, 1999)   link
        Tarrance Group poll (1999)link
        Battleground poll link
        Ethan Bronner, "Left and Right are Crossing Paths" (N.Y. Times, July 11, 1999) link
        The Economist, "Is there a crisis?" (1999)
Further reading:
    Partnership for Trust in Government's public opinion poll results    link
    Hart-Teeter 1997 poll
    Hart-Teeter 1995 poll
    Paul Gottfried, After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State (Princeton U
        Press, 1999)
    Nye, Zelikow & King, eds., Why People Don't Trust Government (Harvard U Press, 1997)
        review
    Anthony Giddens, "Politics After Socialism"  (lectures by the director of the London School
        of Economics, 1998-99) transcripts
    David Winston, "What Voters Want: The Politics of Personal Connection" (Policy Review,
        June/July 1999)  link

V.  The Transformation of Freedom?  --  April 10, 12, 17, 19.
    Another discussion of the U.S. Constitution.
    Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume II, book 4 (pp. 287-334)
A.  Freedom and the Therapeutic State
    Nolan, The Therapeutic State, chapters 1-2, 7-8 (pp. 1-45, 235-308)    review
    Jonathan Rausch, "Tunnel Vision" (National Journal, 1998) link
B.  Freedom and the Politics of Entitlement
    Samuelson, The Good Life and Its Discontents, chapters 9-15 & Afterword (pp. 141-255)
Further reading:
    Orwell reconsidered    Orwell page
    Dean Worcester, Liberty at Risk: The Least Every Citizen Should Know
        About Capitalism and Its Enemies (1999)  webbed text
    W. Kip Viscusi (entitlement to risk-free life?)
 

VI.  The Prospects for Ethical Renewal  --  April 24, 26, May 1, 3, 8, 10, 15.
    Washington, "Farewell Address"
    Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume II, book 2 (pp. 94-161)
    William Bennett, "Does Honor Have a Future?" (1997 speech)   link
    Fukuyama, "How to Re-Moralize America" (1999) link
    Karl Zinsmeister, "Chin Up: Some Ugly Trends Grow Lovelier" (The American Enterprise,
        Jan./Feb. 1999)  link
 Further reading:
    Review of Himmelfarb, "One Nation, Two Cultures" by Charles Murray
    Gertrude Himmelfarb, The De-Moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern
        Values (Vintage Books, 1994)  The Victorian Web
    C-SPAN interview of Gelernter   transcript
        RealAudio
    Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) excerpts
        full text
    Brian Goff & Arthur A. Fleisher III, Spolied Rotten: Affluence, Anxiety,
        and Social Decay in America (Westview Press, 1999)   interview
    Dinesh D'Souza, The Virtue of Prosperity: Finding Values in an Age of Techno-Affluence
        C-SPAN interview  link
    William Bennett, The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators 2001    webbed text
    James B. Twitchell, For Shame: The Loss of Common Decency in American Culture
        (St. Martins Press, 1997)
    Alan Wolfe, One Nation After All (Viking Press, 1998)  interview
    Andrew Delbanco, The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope (Harvard U Press,
        1999)   interview
        also The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost the Sense of Evil  (Farrar Straus
            & Giroux, 1995)   PS189.G66
    Wilfred McClay, The Masterless: Self and Society in Modern America (U of North Carolina
        Press, 1994)
    Jonathan Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the 20th Century (Jonathan Cape, 1999)
         review by Samuel Brittan
    Robert Conquest, Reflections on a Ravaged Century (W.W. Norton, 2000)
        C-SPAN interview  link
        Robert Conquest, Freedom, Terror and Falsehoods: Lessons from the 20th Century (2000)
    Robert Wright, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny (Pantheon, 1999)
        author's web site (includes many excerpts)
        review by Francis Fukuyama  (Wilson Quarterly, winter 2000)
    Margaret Talbot, "A Mighty Fortress" (NY Times Sunday Magazine, Feb. 27, 2000)
    David Brooks, BOBOS in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
        (Simon & Schuster, 2000)
        C-SPAN interview  link
         excerpt
         review
    Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
        (2000)
        C-SPAN interview  link
        author's website
 
 

    The center did not hold.
    However, the Gross National Product continues to rise.
                            -- Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins (1971), p. 18