Author： Franke Jim Johnson Bagby Laurie
Publisher： Routledge Ltd
ISSN： 1551-2169
Source： Journal of Political Science Education, Vol.1, Iss.2, 2005-05, pp. : 249-271
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Abstract
It is not at all unusual in an upper-division undergraduate class, or even on occasion in a graduate course, to discover that students view the founders in much the same cynical fashion as many tend to view public officials today. They are therefore surprised to discover that, for example, the founders spent considerable time discussing prevailing theories regarding human nature. More than once students have responded with something on the order of “you mean they actually thought about this stuff?” The idea that the deliberations of the founders were serious, over substantive matters, and highly reasoned, comes as a surprise to many students. To them it is quite strange, and usually in the end quite a pleasant thought, to consider the American founders as primarily thinking individuals who deliberated about the common good within the context of sectional interests. The founders as men of ideas comes as a refreshing alternative to what students often perceive as the rough and tumble of today's political figures and their functionaries, who seem more intent on image-making or shouting the opposition down than on true deliberation. These types of exchanges with students over the years led us to wonder what they were being taught about the founding in college level United States government textbooks. The introductory course in U.S. politics may be the only course many college students ever take on the subject. It is intrinsically important and interesting to know what they are taught in those textbooks and to think about how what they are taught may impact on their general view of citizenship, their “civic education” if you will. To that end, we have developed a typology of three different approaches to the study and interpretation of the American founding. These approaches include an emphasis on economics and/or class, the revolution of ideas, and power politics. We have examined the treatment of the founding in the top fifteen (in terms of sales) introductory U.S. government textbooks relative to this typology. Ideas provide the organizing framework in only about 25% of these texts. More than half present the founding as an exercise in power politics. We believe that not only is this power politics emphasis at odds with the founders' deliberations, but it also diminishes their accomplishments in the eyes of college students and may engender, or at least contribute to, cynicism rather than a healthy skepticism regarding U. S. government and politics.
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