HIST 3431 Dr. Edward E. Baptist

Obama and Lincoln eeb36@cornell.edu

Fall 2009 Office: McGraw 433/ 255-1881

MW 11:15-12:05; MLT 251 Office hours: MW 9-10 AM, and by appt.

Course Description:

We compare Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln because others compare them. Obama also compares them, repeatedly riffing on Lincoln’s lines and sampling his styles. But there are other similarities: both emerged on the U.S. national political scene as tall, slender men from Illinois; each claiming to be bearers of ideals—but each also being an extraordinarily savvy politician. Each is extraordinary with words: each one a prose stylist head and shoulders beyond all other American presidents. Each one is, or was, a moderate seen as a radical by political enemies and other opponents who reacted to their election with (at times) panic; each was the most unlikely President in all the history of the Presidency at the time of their election. But there’s more: Each was in a sense the answer (for their supporters) to the problems posed by a long period of dysfunction in U.S. party politics that had brought the republic to the brink of disaster. And so each arose from a career of national obscurity, suddenly, at a moment of war and crisis.

In this course we will use Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama: their words, their careers, their broader political and economic contexts as an opportunity to study American politics. We will study the relationship between tectonic economic and demographic transformations. We will also study two things that are supposedly separate from each other—the process of partisan politics (boo, hiss—we are all supposed to hate that, aren’t we? Or are we?) on the one hand, and the discussion of transcendent ideals of democracy on the other. And a third thing, too—the places where soaring idealism and the sometimes dirty process of political struggle overlap, perhaps to our surprise.

Requirements:

Each student will complete two written projects. The first will be a traditional essay, and the second will be a bit more innovative. The due dates for the essays are listed in the course schedule. Each student will complete an in-class prelim and a final exam during the assigned final exam period. And each student will also be required to register for a discussion section. Your grade for the section will be determined by attendance and participation.

Grading breakdown:

Written assignment I: 10%

Written assignment II: 10%

Prelim: 20%

Section: 20%

Final: 40%

Texts:

The following required texts are available at the Cornell Store:

Godfrey Hodgson, America in Our Time

Godfrey Hodgson, More Equal Than Others

Abraham Lincoln, The Portable Lincoln, ed. Andrew Delbanco

William Lee Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues

William Lee Miller, The Duty of a Statesman

Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father

We will also view, both in class and outside of class, a number of speeches by Obama, and read their texts.

Class Schedule

Week 1: (Lincoln, 5-9, 17-27; Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, xi-91 )

8/31 Introduction and major themes

9/2 The second party system and young Abe Lincoln

Week 2: (Lincoln, 27-30, 173-181 ; Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, 92-230 )

9/7 How to make sausage

9/9 Politics and war, part I

Week 3: (Lincoln, 41-81, 100-171; Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, 231-374)

9/14 Opposing slavery expansion

9/16 How to get elected President

Week 4: (Lincoln, 197-217, 226-234 ; Miller, Lincoln’s Virtues, 375-end )

9/21 The idea of union vs. the idea of secession

9/23 Finding the path to victory

Week 5: (Lincoln, 265-272, 277-301; Miller, Duty of a Statesman, 3-192)

9/28 Was Lincoln a racist?

9/30 Emancipation

Week 6: (Lincoln, 323-324, 343-344 ; Miller, Duty of a Statesman, 212-313)

10/5 Gettysburg and victory

10/7 The impact of the Civil War on America

Week 7: (Lincoln, 348-350, 352-357; Miller, Duty of a Statesman, 351-424 )

10/12 FALL BREAK

10/14 Transcendence and crash

Week 8: (Obama, Dreams From My Father, Part I ; Hodgson, America in Our Time, selections TBA)

10/19 The New Deal ideal

10/21 The 1960s, part I

Week 9: (Obama, Dreams From My Father, Part II ; Hodgson, America in Our Time, selections TBA )

10/26 The 1960s, part II

10/28 Demolition

Week 10: (Obama, Dreams From My Father, Part III; Hodgson, More Equal Than Others, xvii-111 )

11/2 End of the New Deal political-economic regime

11/4 Rise of the MegaParty

Week 11: (Obama, speeches from Blackboard links; Hodgson, More Equal Than Others, 112-202.)

11/9 Politics and war, part II

11/11 What is the media?

Week 12: (Obama, speeches from Blackboard links; Hodgson, More Equal Than Others, 203-304)

11/16 WikiPolitics

11/18 Making the case

Week 13: (Obama, speeches from Blackboard links; selected readings about the 2008 election from Blackboard links)

11/23 Race and the Presidency: the unsteady march

11/25 THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week 14: (Obama speeches from Blackboard links)

11/30 The New Deal: another mirror

12/2 The long view