Admission requirements
This course is intended for students from a limited number of programmes. Because of the limited capacity available for each programme, all students who will enroll are placed on a waiting list. Students in the MA program in North American Studies (NAS)--and if their places are filled, those in the MA History --will have priority. The definite admission will be made according to the position on the waiting list and the number of students from each programme. In total there is room for a maximum of 22 students in the seminar.
Description
The United States has long been considered a bastion of liberal democracy—indeed, one of the oldest liberal democracies in the modern world. The country’s recent pivot away from liberal democracy and towards illiberal authoritarian government has therefore been interpreted by many commentators as an aberration. A perusal of American history, however, reveals that deep-seated illiberal and anti-democratic values and movements—specifically aimed at obstructing or depressing democratic participation and nullifying liberal rights—have played an important role in American society and politics for well over two centuries. As historian Steven Hahn recently argued, ‘illiberalism is part of the American bedrock.’
From the establishment of a federal government designed to allow elites to ‘check’ the will of the people and protect the institution of slavery in the wake of the American Revolution; to the violent denial of constitutional rights to (and expulsion of) perceived ‘undesirables’ in the antebellum period; to the bloody rejection of liberal democratization in the wake of the US Civil War and the rise of one-party rule in the Jim Crow South; to the anti-suffrage and eugenics movements of the Progressive Era; to the “massive resistance” to desegregation and multiracial democracy in the wake of the civil rights movements of the 1960s-70s; to the rise of Christian nationalism and Trumpism in recent decades—American society has long been shaped by illiberal and anti-democratic forces. The American government has also actively and openly supported dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in Latin America and around the world for most of its history.
How have illiberal and anti-democratic movements and policies throughout American history been characterized? How can they be explained, and why did some succeed while others failed? To what extent is the current “democratic backsliding” a departure from earlier illiberal and anti-democratic chapters in US history? This course will broadly examine illiberalism and anti-democracy in American history, from the Revolution to the present. It will consider why illiberal and anti-democratic values have been embraced by various groups in specific times and places, to what extent such movements succeeded in obstructing liberal democracy at both the federal and local levels, and how anti-democratic forces have helped shape American society, politics, and relations with the rest of the world.
The course will be taught in the form of history seminars and will be assessed through class assignments, an individual presentation, and a research paper based in part on primary sources available through online databases, in print form, or in the collections of the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg.
Course objectives
Learning objectives, pertaining to this research seminar
The student:
understands the historical relevance and impact of various illiberal and anti-democratic values and movements from the founding of the republic to the present day;
has knowledge and understanding of the ways in which illiberal and anti-democratic policies and movementst have connected the US with other parts of the world;
has comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the historiographical and theoretical debates regarding the various illiberal and anti-democratic movements and policies in American history;
has a working knowledge of the continuities and discontinuities of various illiberal and anti-democratic movements in American history;
has knowledge of suitable research methods and can independently conduct research using digitally available, published, and unedited primary sources on illiberal and anti-democratic movements in American history;
has the ability to describe and justify the adopted research methods;
(ResMA only): has the ability to interpret a potentially complex corpus of sources and identify new approaches within existing academic debates.
General learning objectives
The student has acquired:
the ability to independently identify and select primary and secondary sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
the ability to critically analyse and evaluate a corpus of primary and secondary sources with a view to addressing a particular historical and/or cultural problem;
the ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
the ability to formulate and clearly express logical arguments in correct academic English (both orally and written) and using appropriate citation style;
the ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
the ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
(ResMA only): The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.
Skills
Skills that are relevant to the course (For more information click here.)
(Meta-)cognitive
Research
Analysing
Generating solutions
Project-based working
Digital skills
Interpersonal
Working together
Oral communication
Written communication
Presenting
Societal awareness
Personal
Reflect
Independent learning
Resilience
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment method
Research paper (ca. 7000 words, based on research of both primary and secondary sources, including footnotes and bibliography);
Oral presentation based on research proposals (5-10 minutes);
Assignments (3x literature reviews of 500 words each / 1x group podcast / for ResMA students also a final historiographical essay of 2000 words—please see instructor) and class participation.
Weighing
Research paper: 70%
Assignments and participation: 20%
o NB: Active participation during class is not graded separately but factored into your grade for each assignment.Oral presentation: 10%
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average. If the final grade is insufficient (lower than 5.5), only the research paper can be rewritten.
Resit
If the final grade is insufficient (lower than 5.5), only the research paper can be rewritten.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
*Steven Hahn, Illiberal America: A History (New York: W.W. Norton, 2024).
*Additional literature will be made known in the course syllabus.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal
Remarks
Not applicable.