America Goes to College

John E. Seery

Description

A rallying cry on behalf of a distinctly American institution of higher learning—the small liberal arts college—America Goes to College combines broad-based scholarship with personal narrative and reflection. In a highly entertaining manner, John E. Seery showcases the precarious successes of a well-rounded liberal arts college education, while at the same time signaling some of the dangers that loom on the horizon. Seery contends that the liberal arts are best pursued within the face-to-face interactive setting, characteristic of the small college classroom, as opposed to the large university lecture hall. Moreover and more provocatively, he identifies political theorists as the proper custodians and practitioners of the liberal arts tradition as it unfolds today. It is the unfettered freedom of the small liberal arts college, where vision and practice can actually coincide, that makes it the embodiment of the advantages of the American higher education system—a national treasure deserving of support.
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Political Theory for the Liberal Arts

CANONS

1. My Turn: A Great Bookish Tell-all

2. The Columbus Controversy as Confession

COLLEGES

3. George Kateb's Main Thing

4. What Teaching at Pomona College Means to Me

CONTROVERSIES

5. Moral Perfectionism and Abortion Politics

6. Political Philosophy in the Twilight of an Idol

CANVASES

7. Grant Wood's Political Gothic

8. Do Media Studies Belong in a Liberal Arts Curriculum?

COMPOSITIONS

9. Unremembered Acts Remembered

10. Castles in the Air: An Essay on Political Foundations

COMMISSIONS

11. Political Theory in the Twentieth Century

12. America Goes to College: A Manifesto of Sorts

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Tertiary education
• Education

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791487525
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 20 Mo

Extrait

PoliticalTheoryfortheLiberalArts

AMERICA GOES COLLEGE TO Political Theory for the Liberal Arts

J O H N E . S E E R Y

America Goes to College

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STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Cover art by Grant Wood,Honorary Degree, 1937, lithograph on paper Collection of Davenport Museum of Art, Estate of Grant Wood / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Published by S TATE  U NIVERSITYOF  N EW  Y ORK  P RESS A LBANY

© 2002 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, address State University of New York Press 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

Production, Laurie Searl Marketing, Patrick Durocher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Seery, John Evan. America goes to college : political theory for the liberal arts / John E. Seery. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7914-5591-2 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5592-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Education, Humanistic—United States. 2. Education, Higher—Political aspects—United States. 3. Education, Higher—Aims and objectives—United States. I. Title.

LC1021 .S42 2003 370.11'2—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2002075882

For Shea and Colman

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C o n t e n t s

Acknowledgments Introduction: Political Theory for the Liberal Arts

1 2

3 4

5 6

7 8

CANONS

My Turn: A Great Bookish Tell-all The Columbus Controversy as Confession

COLLEGES

George Kateb’s Main Thing What Teaching at Pomona College Means to Me

CONTROVERSIES

Moral Perfectionism and Abortion Politics

Political Philosophy in the Twilight of an Idol

CANVASES

Grant Wood’s Political Gothic Do Media Studies Belong in a Liberal Arts Curriculum?

ix 1

21 49

63 79

91 107

117 139

viii

9 10

11 12

C O N T E N T S

COMPOSITIONS

Unremembered Acts Remembered Castles in the Air: An Essay on Political Foundations

COMMISSIONS

Political Theory in the Twentieth Century America Goes to College: A Manifesto of Sorts

Notes Index

147 153

179 193

209 241

C O N T E N T S

A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

i x

any persons have read parts, or even entire drafts, of this book at various stages of completion, and for their generous help I am M grateful beyond words. They include: Yishaiya Abosch, Joseph Acorn, Henry Adams, Benjamin Barber, Derek Barker, Richard Caperton, Brenda Carpio, Terrell Carver, Beth Cope, Daniel Conway, Wanda Corn, Devon Crie, Paul Dahlgren, Patrick Deneen, Laura Ephraim, Mario Feit, Alan Finlayson, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Andrew Flores, Iselin Gambert, Sarah Jackel, Steven Johnston, Charles Junkerman, Joshua Karant, George Kateb, Grace Kim, Karl Kohn, Nancy Laursen, Bronwyn Leebaw, Nicholas Lewis, Diana Linden, Lee McDonald, Robert Meister, Matthew Moynihan, Frances Pohl, Chris Rocco, Laura Rosen, Aaron Sachs, Paul Saint-Amour, Jean Schroedel, George Shulman, Verity Smith, Jacqueline Stevens, Tracy Strong, James Sullivan, Daniel Wahlig, and Samuel Wineburg. I wish to extend a public thank-you to the many anonymous reviewers and journal editors along the way. I also am deeply appreciative of the supportive efforts of Michael Rinella, Laurie Searl, Michele Lamsing, and State University of New York Press. For all of the book’s possible shortcomings, I alone am the culpable party. A National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Grant for College Teachers and a Graves Award in the Humanities for College Teach- ers helped support the research and writing of chapter 7, “Grant Wood’s Political Gothic.” Permission to reprint material published elsewhere has been granted as follows: “The Demise of Western Culture” with Daniel W. Conway,Curricu- lar Reform:Narratives of Interdisciplinary Humanities Programs, ed. Mark E. Clark and Roger Johnson Jr. (Chattanooga, Tenn.: Southern Humanities Council Press, 1991), 89–113, for a portion of chapter 1; chapter 5 originally appeared in the spring 2001 issue ofPolity33: 33: 345–64; “Nietzsche Contra Nietzcheanism: Philosophy in the Twilight of an Idol,”Journal of Nietzsche Studies 16 (fall 1998): 80-86, for a portion of chapter 6; “Grant Wood’s Political Gothic,”Theory & Event2: 1 (1998) (on-line Muse Project, Johns Hopkins University Press), for an earlier version of chapter 7; “Castles in the i x