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Political and Social Thought

The History Department workshop in Political and Social Thought was established in the spring of 2003 and has met regularly ever since.  Its ambition was to provide a forum for all faculty and graduate students who are concerned with issues in this whole broad field of intellectual history—from the ancients to the moderns, from classical Greece to recent America, and including non-Western cultures as well.  The assumption is that there is a common ground among scholars in widely different subject areas, who nevertheless share common problems and methods, and who will find a regular exchange of ideas stimulating.  From the first, it has welcomed interested members from other departments in the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences, from Political Science, Philosophy and Fine Arts, and so helped to furnish a bridge between the History Department and some kindred disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. 

The workshop meets about once every two weeks to discuss a paper which is either read or circulated beforehand and critically examined.  Distinguished visitors from outside have been invited to lead the discussions, among them Anthony Grafton (on Renaissance civic humanism) and Robert Darnton (on the French underground press in the eighteenth century), both from Princeton, and Jonathan Clark (On the English Enlightenment) from the University of Kansas.  Fred Beiser from the Syracuse Philosophy Department has also talked about Rousseau.  Future visitors will deal with topics in American and English history, while various members of the department will also lead the workshop.   

The workshop is open to all members of the community.  Graduate students are particularly welcome to its activities.  Planning is presently done by a small committee of the department under the leadership of Pamela Edwards.