1. Wednesday, August 24.

Assumption: The Nation-State can be a Common Denominator (But that doesn't mean we always have Nation-States).


2. Friday, August 26.

Discusssion #1: Who belongs to America and why?

S. Huntington , “The Hispanic Challenge,” Foreign Policy (Reader)

R. Scruton, The West and the Rest, pp. vii-xi

F. Barringer, “Bitter Division for Sierra Club on Immigration,” New York Times, March 16, 2004 (Reader).

Huntington's welcome in Mexico

Assignment: Turn in a one-page essay assignment on the topic of this discussion section. Take a stand: Does Huntington welcome Hispanics and Catholics into the modern American nation-state? If so, under what terms? More important details about this assignment are here.

3. Monday, August 29

Assumption: We are all Modern.

C. Black, et al., pp. 4-25 (Reader)

Scruton, The West and the Rest, ch. 1

L. Kass, “The End of Courtship,” Public Interest, Sept. 23, 2002 (Reader)

4. Wednesday, August 31

Assumption: Liberalism is one Form of Modernity (But not the only One)

John Stuart Mill, selections from On Liberty (Reader)

5. Friday, September 2

Discussion #2: Why are we all Liberals?

Read and reflect up the following two controversies. How would Mill want us to handle them?

1. Freedom House, “New Report on Saudi Government Publications in the U.S” (Reader); and Ben Daniel, “In Defense of Libraries” (Reader)

2. The Ward Churchill Controversy: 3 statements, including the infamous "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens” (Reader)

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