POLS
589
TOPICS IN
POLITICAL THEORY: 21ST CENTURY IMPERIALISM
Stephen Engelmann
1108B BSB
312 413-3781 (phone)
312 413-0440 (fax)
sengelma@uic.edu
Office hours: Mondays 1-4 and by appt.
Supporters
and critics alike are calling today’s United States the new Rome. Roman citizens thought of themselves and
their system of government as uniquely virtuous, even as Roman rule became
increasingly despotic at home and abroad.
Many eighteenth-century republicans were convinced that imperialism
destroyed Rome’s republican institutions and eventually the empire itself. The theme of government’s corruption by
empire has been renewed at various crisis points in American history. Now American power has once again raised the
specter of U.S. imperialism, and has specifically raised the analogy to Rome. POLS 589 will treat the topic of imperialism
with special emphasis on the U.S. We
will investigate the historical conditions of possibility and premises of the
question of empire, rhetorics of American republicanism, analyses of
imperialism, and characterizations of the emerging global (dis)order.
COURSE
REQUIREMENTS
Students are expected to write a 2-page memo on each week’s
reading, due at the beginning of class.
9 (out of 13) passing memos will guarantee an “A” for 40% of the final
grade (fewer passes make this grade decline sharply: B for 9, C for 8, etc.). A presentation of your seminar project will
count for another 15%, the final seminar paper (15-20 pp.) 35%, and attendance
and participation 10%. Papers are due
December 8; missed memos cannot be made up.
Required books are available at the UIC Bookstore (they are still
coming in). Readings from web links and
xeroxes will also be required (readings from required books are starred (**) in
the listings below). Please generate an
informal paper proposal by October 22.
Any topic inspired by these readings is fine, but you must get
instructor approval before proceeding.
Schedule of Topics and Readings
August 27: Introduction
September 3: Contemporary controversies
“The National Security Strategy of the United States of America,”
military and policy analysis, and web journalism
September 10: Theoretical forays
Giorgio Agamben
Etienne Balibar
George Steinmetz
and others
September 17: The Ancients I: Athens
**Thucydides, The Peloponnesian Wars, pp. 35-49, 124-164,
194-223, 236-264, 400-599
September 24: The Ancients II: Rome
**Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire, pp. 41-55,
124-47, 178-276, 302-352, 395-406, 429-482, 504-513, 535-541
Sallust’s Bellum Catalinae (excerpt)
Livy, The Early History of Rome (excerpt)
Cicero, On Duties (excerpt)
October 1: The Ancients III: Rome, cont’d
**Veyne, Paul, The Roman Empire
Tacitus, Empire and Emperors (excerpt)
Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (excerpt)
Augustine, City of God (excerpt)
October 8:
Liberalism, Republicanism, and the Early-Modern State
**Skinner,
Quentin, Liberty Before Liberalism
Engelmann,
Stephen, Imagining Interest in Political Thought (excerpt)
October 15: American Foundings I
**Bailyn, Bernard, The Ideological Origins of the American
Revolution
October 22:
American Foundings II
Jefferson, Political Writings (excerpt)
Publius, The Federalist (excerpt)
Hamilton, Writings
(excerpt)
October 29: Redeemer Nation I
Tuveson, Ernest, Redeemer Nation (excerpt)
Speeches and Addresses of William McKinley (excerpt)
Foner, Philip, ed., The Anti-Imperialist Reader (excerpt)
November 5: Redeemer Nation II
**Lawrence, John Shelton and Robert Jewett, Captain America and
the Crusade against Evil
November 12: Contemporary Theory I
**Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri, Empire
November 19: Contemporary Theory II
**Balakrishnan, Gopal, ed., Debating Empire
November 26: Contemporary Theory III
Spivak, Gayatri, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
Said, Edward, Culture and Imperialism (excerpt)
**Zizek, Slavoj, Welcome to the Desert of the Real
December 3: Student Projects