From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Professor Freeman discusses colonial attempts to unite before the 1760s and the ways in which regional distrust and localism complicated matters. American colonists joined together in union three times before the 1760s. Two of these attempts were inspired by the necessity of self-defense; the thi...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Professor Shapiro takes up again Schumpeter’s minimalist conception of democracy. When operationalized as a two turnover test, this conception of democracy proves far from minimalist, yet people often expect other things from democracy, like delivering justice. Although people experiencing injus...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Jeremy Bentham’s formulation of classical utilitarianism is the first Enlightenment tradition that the course will cover in depth. In his Principles of Morals and Legislation, Bentham outlines the principle of utility; that is, the principle that all men are pleasure-seeking and pain-avoiding. P...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

This lecture discusses the ongoing political experimentation involved in creating new constitutions for the new American states. Having declared independence from Great Britain, Americans had to determine what kind of government best suited their individual states as well as the nation at large;...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Marxism is the second Enlightenment tradition upon which the course will focus. Contrary to popular belief, Marx did not hate capitalism but derived from economic analysis that it would self-destruct and lead to socialism. It is also a myth that Marx did not care about freedom; he was only egali...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

In this lecture, Professor Freeman discusses the Articles of Confederation. Although they seem hopelessly weak in the long view of history, the Articles made perfect sense as a first stab at a national government by a people who deeply distrusted centralized power - a direct product of their rec...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Professor Shapiro continues his examination of Jeremy Bentham’s formulation of classical utilitarianism, with a focus on the distributive implications of the theory of "maximizing the greatest happiness of the greatest number." He engages students in a discussion of a guiding principle of classi...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

An ancient disease, tuberculosis experienced a major upsurge in Western Europe in the nineteenth century, corresponding with increasing industrialization and urbanization. Poor air quality and cramped living conditions increased susceptibility to the disease. Tuberculosis also had a significant ...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Professor Shapiro guides the class through some practical applications of his theory of democratic justice. As applied to governing children, a sphere in which power-based hierarchy is inevitable, he circumscribes the role of the state as the fiduciary over children’s basic interests and the rol...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Professor Freeman offers an introduction to the course, summarizing the readings and discussing the course’s main goals. She also offers five tips for studying the Revolution: 1) Avoid thinking about the Revolution as a story about facts and dates; 2) Remember that words we take for granted toda...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Professor Freeman discusses the differences between society in the American colonies and society in Britain in the eighteenth century. She uses examples from colonists' writings to show that the American colonies differed from British society in three distinct ways: the distinctive character...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

In this economics-oriented lecture, Professor Shapiro introduces neoclassical utilitarianism as it was formulated by economist Vilfredo Pareto and further described by Francis Edgeworth, examining such concepts as indifference curves, transitivity, the Pareto principle, and the Edgeworth box dia...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

The debate between contagionists and anticontagionists over the transmission of infectious diseases played a major role in nineteenth-century medical discourse. On the one side were those who believed that diseases could be spread by infected material, perhaps including people and inanimate obje...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Today’s lecture concludes Professor Freeman's discussion of the four phases of the Revolutionary War. America's victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777 marked the end of the third phase of the war, and led to a turning point in the conflict: France's decision to recognize Americ...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Majority rule and democratic competition serve as the focus of this second lecture on the democratic tradition. What is it about majority rule that confers legitimacy on collective decisions? Is there any validity to a utilitarian justification, that catering to the wishes of the majority maximi...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

Before exploring the three Enlightenment traditions in particular, Professor Shapiro examines the Enlightenment holistically, using John Locke as the foundation for the discussion. The first tenet of the Enlightenment is a commitment to science as a way of ordering politics, and Professor Shapir...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

There is a longstanding debate over the origins of syphilis, in which arguments over how the disease arrived in Europe have historically been linked to racist and xenophobic ideologies as well as to scientific and historical research. Whatever its provenance, the major syphilis epidemic of the l...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:46 AM

In this lecture, Professor Freeman explains the logic behind American and British military strategy during the early phases of the Revolution. First, she discusses the logistic disadvantages of the British during the war: the difficulties shipping men and supplies from more than three thousand m...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:45 AM

Professor Shapiro transitions to the third and final section of the course, an in-depth look at democracy and its institutions. According to him, democracy is the most successful at delivering on the mature Enlightenment’s twin promises to recognize individual rights as the ultimate political go...

From: ACADEMIC EARTH on Wed, May 25 2011 12:45 AM

The trial of Adolf Eichmann, as presented in Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, is the topic of discussion. Professor Shapiro asks students what made them uncomfortable, not only about Eichmann's actions as a Nazi officer, but also the actions of Israel in capturing, extraditing, trying...