Liberty and Equality: The American Ideals
Darren Staloff
This course examines the two central ideals of the American political tradition, liberty and equality. It tracks their original formulation in the founding of the United States and their evolution over time. It also interrogates the tensions between these ideals and how they have been resolved throughout the course of American political and social development.
Potential readings include the following sources, some excerpted and others read in full:
John Dickinson, “Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,”
The Declaration of Independence
The Federalist Papers
George Washington, Farewell Address
Frederick Douglas, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave
Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois”
Abraham Lincoln, “Lincoln-Douglas Debates”
Abraham Lincoln, “Cooper Union Address”
Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers
Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Commonwealth Club Address”
John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action
F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
Meet the Instructor
Darren Staloff
Professor, City College of New York
Dr. Darren Staloff is Professor of History at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He earned his B.A. from Columbia College and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Prior to taking his position at City College, Staloff served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Virginia. He also spent three years as a preceptor of Contemporary Civilization at Columbia University. Professor Staloff is the recipient of a National Endowment of Humanities Fellowship, the President’s Fellowship at Columbia University, and the Harry J. Carman Scholar at Columbia University. Professor Staloff has published numerous papers and reviews on the subject of early American history and is the author of The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts (1998) and Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment and the American Founding (2005).