As I noted in yesterday’s post, I team-taught a course on America 3.0 at U.Cal.Irvine last Spring. We considered asking the students to read some additional material beyond the sections of the book we assigned. However, we decided that the book was enough and we did not want to overload under-graduates. The following is the proposed additional material we considered assigning, with links.
Week # 1. America 3.0: Introduction
Week # 2. America 3.0: America in 2040
IP in a World Without Scarcity by Mark A. Lemley.
The students should read Section I, part C — pages 10-24. This article covers three major sources of disruptive change: 3D Printing, Synthetic Biology and Bioprinting and Robotics. Of course, they may read the entire article if they wish. The question of the law and regulation of these new technologies is a huge area to be explored.
Week # 3. America 3.0: The American Family
Duranton, Family Types and the Persistence of Regional Disparities in Europe .
See, table page 2, map on page 8, regarding the Absolute Nuclear Family.
The World Values Survey Cultural Map of the World.
Why Americans are the WEIRDest People in the World.
Week # 4. America 3.0 Chapter 3: Our Germanic Inheritance
Augustus Freeman, Lectures to American Audiences, Ch. 1 “The English People in its Three Homes”.
Read pages 26-32. The point is to show the students the older scholarship on this issue, which has fallen out of favor, but which was in fact correct.
Map of Germanic Settlement of Britain.
Week # 5. America 3.0 Chapter 4: Our English Inheritance
F. W. Maitland, A Sketch of English Legal Histor y.
The students should read pages 1-3, 78-79 and 110-14.
Alan Macfarlane, F.W. Maitland and the Making of the Modern World, Chapter 10, pp. 92-98.
Map showing Common Law and Civil Law.
Week # 6. America 3.0 Chapter 5: American 1.0
Read it all.
Constitution of the United States .
Read article IV.
Skim the document, especially the first nine paragraphs.
Map of the Northwest Territory .
Article on the Barbados Slave Code.
Week # 7. America 3.0 Chapter 7: America 2.0
Selections from Walter Chrysler, The Life of an American Workman
Showing the 100th Meridian.
Week # 8. America 3.0 Chapter 7: The Great U-Turn.
Witold Rybczynski, How to Save Our Shrinking Cities .
Rebecca A. Rosen, Keepin’ It Cool: How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America.
Week # 9. America 3.0 Chapter 8: Domestic Policy
Glenn Reynolds, Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything Is a Crime .
Interview with Iain Murray, author of Stealing You Blind: How Government Fat Cats Are Getting Rich Off of You
Zenpundit, The Era of the Creepy State is Here .
Week # 10. America 3.0 Chapter 9: Defense and Foreign Policy
Barry R. Posen, Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of U.S. Hegemony.
Some real jewels there. Fun to see the face of The Edge of England’s Sword and inset of his lovely wife. That was a great blog. I hope you made the list available to the students. I would love to take that course. Thinking about a MOOC?
Yes, Edge was a great blog.
A MOOC would be good. We are considering a lot of things, including video product.