Government Primary Sources

LEVEL 5, Year 2

Term 1

1. Magna Carta*ICC-Principles of Liberty: A Study of the Magna Carta (lecture)
2. “Reading the American Founding” by Bradley J. Birzer
3. John Adams, Dissertation on Feudal and Canon Law
4. Thomas Gordon, “A Discourse of Standing Armies”
5. Demophilus, “The Genuine Principles of the Ancient Saxon, or English Constitution”
6. Addison, Cato: A Tragedy
7. Hamilton, “Remarks on the Quebec Bill”
8. Dickinson, Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer: 1
9. Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer: 3 
10. Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer: 8
11. Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer: 9

Honors: Read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley  (½)

Term 2

1. Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer: 10 
2. Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer: 12
3. Edmund Burke, “Speech on American Taxation”
   • “Edmund Burke and the Dignity of the Human Person” by Bradley J. Birzer
4. Samuel Sherwood, “The Church’s Flight into the Wilderness”
5. Federalist #1, “Introduction” by Alexander Hamilton
6. Federalist #47 “The meaning of the maxim, which requires a separation of the departments of power, examined and ascertained” by James Madison
7. “How Conservatives and Liberals View The Federalist” by George Carey (essay)
8. Declaration of Independence 
   • “How to Read the Declaration of Independence” by M. E. Bradford (essay)
9. Articles of Confederation; Federalist #2 “Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force & Influence”
10. Federalist #9 James Madison  “The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard against Domestic Faction and Insurrection”
11. Federalist #10 James Madison The same Subject continued

Honors: Brave New World (½)

Term 3

1. Federalist #37 James Madison “Concerning the difficulties which the convention must have experienced in the formation of a proper plan”
2. U.S. Constitution Article I; Federalist #51 James Madison “The same subject continued, with the same view, and concluded”
3. Federalist #57 James Madison “The same subject continued, in relation to the supposed tendency of the plan of the convention to elevate the few above the many”
4. Federalist #62 James Madison “Concerning the constitution of the senate, with regard to the qualifications of the members; the manner of appointing them; the equality of representation; the number of the senators, and the duration of their appointments”
5. Federalist #63 James Madison “A further view of the constitution of the senate, in regard to the duration of the appointment of its members”
   1. “Federalists and Anti-Federalists” by Bradley J. Birzer
6. U.S. Constitution, Article II; Federalist #68 Alexander Hamilton “The view of the constitution of the president continued, in relation to the mode of appointment” 
7. Federalist #70 Alexander Hamilton “The same view continued, in relation to the unity of the executive, and with an examination of the project of an executive council”
8. Federalist #72 Alexander Hamilton “The same view continued, in regard to the re-eligibility of the president”
9. U.S. Constitution, Article III; Federalist #78 Alexander Hamilton “A view of the constitution of the judicial department in relation to the tenure of good behaviour”
10. U.S. Constitution, Articles IV-VII ; (Your State Constitution) 
11. Bill of Rights; Federalist #84 Alexander Hamilton “Concerning several miscellaneous objections”

Honors: Read Grand Inquisitor by Dostoevsky

LEVEL 6, Year 1

Term 1

1. Major Problems… Ch. 1, “The Origins of the Postwar International System’”
2. “The Roots of Postwar Politics”
3. “The Legacies of World War II”
4. Major Problems… Ch. 2 “President Harry S Truman’s Advisers Discuss the Atomic Bomb, May 1945” 
5. “Atomic Scientists Urge an Alternative Course, June 1945”
6. “U.S. Science Advisers Endorse Dropping the Bomb, June 1945”
7. “Undersecretary of the Navy Ralph Bard Urges Alternatives, June 1945”
8. “General Leslie Groves Reports on a Successful Test, July 1945”
9. Essay: “The Biggest Decision: Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Bomb”
10. Essay: “Hiroshima: Historians Reassess”
11. “The Catholic Holocaust of Nagasaki”; “Made in America: Massacring the Innocents of Nagasaki” and “Guest Response: The Bombing of Nagasaki”

Honors: Read 1984 by George Orwell  OR Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Optional Suggested Reading: A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai: Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb  by Paul Glynn and Shusaku Endo; The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Term 2

1. Major Problems… Ch. 3, “President  Harry S. Truman and His Advisors Debate U.S. Policy Toward the U.S.S.R., April 1945’” 
2. “Russian Premier Joseph Stalin Defends Soviet Policy in Eastern Europe, April 1945”
3. “Secretary of Commerce Henry A. Wallace Urges a Conciliatory Approach, July 1946”
4. “White House Aide Clark M. Clifford Summarizes the Case for the Hard Line, September 1946”
5. “The Truman Doctrine, March 1947”
6. “Undersecretary of State Dean Achison Calls for Economic Aid to Europe, May 1947”
7. “The President’s Advisors Urge Military Expansion, April 1950”
8. “President Truman and His Advisors Determine the United States’ Response to the Invasion of South Korea, June 26 1950” 
9. “Soviet Unilateralism and the Origins of the Cold War”
10. “An Exaggerated Threat and the Rise of American Globalism”
11. Students may want to read selections from Ch. 4 for insights into the unique economic and social ideas introduced in the 1950s. Parents should preview.

Honors: Read 1984 by George Orwell (?) OR Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (?)

Optional Suggested Reading: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Term 3

1. Major Problems… Ch. 5, “Fidel Castro Denounces U.S. Policy Toward Cuba, 1960” and “President Kennedy Calls for an Alliance for Progress, 1961”
2. “A Board of Inquiry Reports on the Bay of Pigs, 1961”
3. “President Kennedy and His Advisors Debate Options in the Missile Crisis, October 16, 1962”
4. “Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev Appeals to President Kennedy, October 26, 1962” & “Anastas I Mikoyan and Fidel Castro Review the Crisis, November 3-4, 1962”
5. “Spinning Out of Control: Kennedy’s War Against Cuba and the Missile Crisis”
6. “Aftermath”
7. Major Problems… Ch. 6 “Michael Harrington Describes the ‘Other America,’ 1962” and “President Lyndon B. Johnson Declares War on Poverty, 1964”
8. “[President] Ronald Reagan Warns of the Dangers of the Welfare State, 1964”; “A Liberal Cartoonist Worries That Johnson Has Abandoned the Welfare State”; “Two White House Aids Report the Achievements of the Great Society, 1966”;  “Poverty in America, 1959-1997: A Graphic”
9. “Was the Great Society a Lost Opportunity” 
10. “From Opportunities to Entitlement”

Honors: Read 1984 by George Orwell (?) OR Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (?)

Optional Suggested Reading: Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Robert F. Kennedy

LEVEL 6, Year 2

Term 1

1. Major Problems… Ch. 7 “The New York Times Reports a Murder in Georgia, 1946”; “Malcom X Recalls Getting a ‘Conk,’ 1964”; “Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954”
2. “Franklin McCain Remembers the First sit-In, 1960”; “Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘I Have a Dream,’ 1963”; “Stokely Carmichael Explains “Black Power”
3. “A Senate Committee Reports on Campaign Against Martin Luther King, Jr., 1976” & “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
4. “King As Disturber of the Piece”
5. “The Continuing Racial Crisis” Optional Video: Ta-Nehisi Coats and John McWhorter Discuss and Debate Black Hip-Hop Culture and Racism
6. Major Problems… Ch. 8 “The Vietnamese Declare Their Independence, 1945”; “State Department Advisors Debate U.S. Support for French in Vietnam, 1949”; “President Dwight D. Eisenhower Explains the Domino Theory, 1954”
7. “Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference on Indochina, 1954”; “Nguyan Tan Thanh, a South Vietnamese Peasant, Explains Why He Joined the Vietcong (1961), 1986”; “The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964”
8. “President Lyndon Johnson’s Advisors Debate Expanding the War, 1965”
9. “Lieutenant Marion Lee Kempner, a Young Marine, Explains the War, 1966” and “Wrong Rambo! A Vietnam Veteran Looks Back, 1985”
10. “The Cold War and American Intervention in Vietnam”
11. “The Meaning of Vietnam”

Honors: Read All the King’s Men by Warren (?) OR Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (?)

Optional Suggested Reading: The Grunt Padre: Father Vincent Robert Capodanno, Vietnam, 1966-1967 by Father Daniel L. Mode; 

Term 2

1. Major Problems… Ch. 12 “President Jimmy Carter and the Crisis of the American Spirit, 1979” and “Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan Calls for New Economic Policies, 1980”; “President George Bush Seeks a Kinder, Gentler Nation, 1989”
2. “The Republican ‘Contract With America,’ 1994”; “President Bill Clinton Signs a Bill to ‘End Welfare as We Know It,’ 1996”; “A Liberal Post-Mortem on the 1996 Election”
3. “The Mobilization of American Business”
4. “Democrats and Republicans Forge a New Political Economy”
5. Major Problems… Ch. 13 “President Ronald Reagan Denounces the Soviet Empire as an ‘Evil’ Empire, 1982; “U.S. Military Spending: A Graphic”
6. “A Congressional Committee Reports on Irangate, 1987”
7. “Ronald Reagan Addresses the British Parliament”; “Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbechev Charts a New Direction for the U.S.S.R.”; “The New York Times Announces the End of the Cold War, 1989”; “President George Bush Declares a New World Order, 1990”
8. “Ronald Reagan’s Cold War Victory”
9. “Reagan and the Russians”
10. “Reagan and Central America”
11. Catch-up

Honors: Read All the King’s Men by Warren (?) OR Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (?)

Optional Suggested Reading: (for the ambitious/motivated student) A Pope and a President by Paul Kengor 

Term 3

1. “John Paul II CENTESIMUS ANNUS, 1991”  INTRODUCTION 1-3; I. CHARACTERISTICS OF “RERUM NOVARUM” 4-7
2. I. CHARACTERISTICS OF “RERUM NOVARUM” 8-11
3. II. TOWARDS THE ‘NEW THINGS’ OF TODAY 12-16 
4. II. TOWARDS THE ‘NEW THINGS’ OF TODAY 17-21 
5. III. THE YEAR 1989 22-25
6. III. THE YEAR 1989 26-29
7. IV. PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE UNIVERSAL DESTINATION OF MATERIAL GOODS 30-36
8. IV. PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE UNIVERSAL DESTINATION OF MATERIAL GOODS 37-43
9. V. STATE AND CULTURE 44-52
10. V. STATE AND CULTURE 53-62
11. “Does the Church Oppose the Free Market”

Honors: Read All the King’s Men by Warren (?) OR Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (?)

Optional Suggested Reading: Small Is Still Beautiful by Joseph Pearce; Third Ways: How Bulgarian Greens, Swedish Housewives, and Beer-Swilling Englishmen Created Family-Centered Economies – And Why They Disappeared by Alan Carlson