Leadership and Modern American Politics
This course aims to help students think critically about what makes for successful leadership in politics and beyond. Though emphasis is placed on political leadership, lessons and examples are drawn from history, literature, philosophy and business. The course is broken into two parts. In the first half, we will examine the psychology of leadership and try to determine the qualities that make for strong, compelling leaders by drawing on the work of Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, William Shakespeare, and Karl Marx, among others. In the second half, we will conduct a case study in leadership by looking at the 2008 Presidential Campaign and the first term of Barack Obama. In particular, we will focus on the challenges presented by the financial crisis and the special demands it made on leaders across business and politics. We will look at how these leaders reacted individually to the crisis and how they found ways of working together to address it. During the part of the course, we will welcome class speakers who have worked inside and in partnership with the Obama White House.
