1st Edition

The Liberal Tradition in American Politics Reassessing the Legacy of American Liberalism

Edited By David F. Ericson, Louisa Bertch Green Copyright 1999

    First Published in 1999. This volume explores the full range and depth of the liberal tradition in America and how it has been perceived by political theorists and historians. The contributors weigh the various paradigm shifts in our understanding of American political development according to consensus, polarity and multiple traditions. They break new ground by taking into account African-American and proslavery thought, gender and identity politics, citizenship in the Reconstruction and Progressive eras, and models of SupremeCourt decision-making. The Liberal Tradition in America questions the effect of viewing American history through these paradigms on the progress of research, and moves the emphasis in research from the development of political ideas to the development of political institutions

    INTRODUCTION Rogers Smith--Liberalism and Racism: The Problem of Analyzing Traditions Karen Orren and Stephen Skowronek--In Search of Political Development Louisa Bertch Green--The Liberal Tradition in American Politics David F. Ericson--Dew, Fitzhugh and Proslavery Liberalism Gayle McKeen--A Guiding Principle of Liberalism in the Thought of Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. DuBois Carol Horton--Liberal Equality and the Civic Subject: Identity and Citizenship in Reconstruction America Carol Nackenoff--Gendered Citizenship: Alternative Narratives of Political Incorporation in the United States, 1875-1925 Ronald Kahn--Liberalism, Political Culture and the Rights of Subordinated Groups: Constitutional Theory and Practice at a Crossroads Ira Katznelson--Situated Rationality: A Preface to J. David Greenstone's Reading of V. O. Key's The Responsible Electorate CONCLUSION

    Biography

    David F. Ericson is Associate Professor of Political Science at University at Albany, SUNY. He is author of The Shaping of American Liberalism: The Debates over Ratification, Nullification, and Slavery (1993). Louisa Bertch Green is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science, University of Chicago.