Showing posts with label The Constitution According to Akhil Amar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Constitution According to Akhil Amar. Show all posts
March 11, 2008
February 26, 2008
The Constitution According to Akhil Amar - Class 6
Fear not: there was no class last week, and we now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Class 6 (Chapter 6)
Class 6 (Chapter 6)
February 12, 2008
The Constitution According to Akhil Amar - Class 5
Class 5 (Chapter 5)
Sample quote: "Hamilton was a total boy genius. So it wasn't entirely an insult to Hilary Clinton when I compared her to him."
Sample quote: "Hamilton was a total boy genius. So it wasn't entirely an insult to Hilary Clinton when I compared her to him."
February 5, 2008
January 29, 2008
The Constitution According to Akhil Amar - Class 3
Class 3 (Chapter 3)
Note that classes after the first have consisted predominantly of Amar responding to students' mandatory discussion board posts, which need not be about the week's reading. Hence the disjointedness of my notes.
Sample quote from today's class: "People look at Barack Obama and ask whether he's Lincoln, JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy...these are all very good comparisons. They look at Hillary and ask, 'Is she Nixon?'" I guess Amar supports Hillary.
Note that classes after the first have consisted predominantly of Amar responding to students' mandatory discussion board posts, which need not be about the week's reading. Hence the disjointedness of my notes.
Sample quote from today's class: "People look at Barack Obama and ask whether he's Lincoln, JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy...these are all very good comparisons. They look at Hillary and ask, 'Is she Nixon?'" I guess Amar supports Hillary.
January 22, 2008
The Constitution According to Akhil Amar: Classes 1 & 2
Preface
This semester I have the fortune of taking "Reading the Constitution" with Akhil Reed Amar. (Sorry, I lied about my class schedule earlier. But I meant it when I said that I'm pro-war and pro-family.) A more accurate title would be "Reading America's Constitution: A Biography," because that's what we're actually reading. Not that I'm complaining: I've read the constitution before, and the writing's a bit stale.
In all seriousness, this is a tremendously informative and interesting class. Amar's book is primarily an historical work, and it is addressed to the intelligent layperson, who he feels doesn't care enough about the constitution and is tragically ignorant about it.
"So what?" you're probably thinking, to put it euphemistically. (I know my readership. Hi Dave. Hi Googlecrawler.)
So this semester you also have the fortune of taking "Reading the Constitution!" Except you don't get Akhil Amar. You don't get 2 credits. You don't pass "Go" and collect $200.
And you don't have to pay for it.
Now that you're on board, welcome aboard. Class is about to begin. Here's the deal: just about every Tuesday this semester, starting today, I'll post links to my class notes (Blogger screws up the formatting). Since I'm a week behind, I'm going to post the first two sessions worth of notes today. (Consider it a super Tuesday.) You're responsible for reading them. There will be a final exam. The grading scale will consist of PASS, FAIL, and EPIC FAIL. Any questions?
That's what I thought.
All rise. Class is now in session.
Class 1 (Chapter 1)
Class 2 (Chapter 2)
This semester I have the fortune of taking "Reading the Constitution" with Akhil Reed Amar. (Sorry, I lied about my class schedule earlier. But I meant it when I said that I'm pro-war and pro-family.) A more accurate title would be "Reading America's Constitution: A Biography," because that's what we're actually reading. Not that I'm complaining: I've read the constitution before, and the writing's a bit stale.
In all seriousness, this is a tremendously informative and interesting class. Amar's book is primarily an historical work, and it is addressed to the intelligent layperson, who he feels doesn't care enough about the constitution and is tragically ignorant about it.
"So what?" you're probably thinking, to put it euphemistically. (I know my readership. Hi Dave. Hi Googlecrawler.)
So this semester you also have the fortune of taking "Reading the Constitution!" Except you don't get Akhil Amar. You don't get 2 credits. You don't pass "Go" and collect $200.
And you don't have to pay for it.
Now that you're on board, welcome aboard. Class is about to begin. Here's the deal: just about every Tuesday this semester, starting today, I'll post links to my class notes (Blogger screws up the formatting). Since I'm a week behind, I'm going to post the first two sessions worth of notes today. (Consider it a super Tuesday.) You're responsible for reading them. There will be a final exam. The grading scale will consist of PASS, FAIL, and EPIC FAIL. Any questions?
That's what I thought.
All rise. Class is now in session.
Class 1 (Chapter 1)
Class 2 (Chapter 2)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)