Ken Nelson

Was ist Amerika?

Tyler Cowen has a question:

I’ll be teaching a class at the Freie Universität this summer on this topic, in the North American Studies department.  I am wondering what I should have them read.

My first answer suggested this was a hard question to answer without knowing what he wants to get across about America, “his view of America”.

In a later comment, I explain what the syllabus would be with my view of America:

I. What we were

a) Constitution
b) Declaration of Independence
c) Federalist Papers

Assigned reading: Above documents

II. Transformation

a) 1913 Constitutional Amendments (16 and 17)
b) TR, Wilson,  FDR and Progressives

Assigned Reading: William Manchester’s Glory and the Dream

III Progressive/Redistributive Endgame

a) entitlements
b) demographic shifts
c) governmental corruption

Assigned reading – PJ O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores

In many ways this represents my American timeline. In my youth and 20’s I read the founding documents and our core history. In my late 20’s / 30’s I read more detailed things, like the Glory and the Dream (among others). And then I read Parliament of Whores and realized the jig was up, we were walking dead and just didn’t know it yet.