Empire and Political Thought

This seminar examines the relationship between the history and theory of empire and the development of modern political thought.  The course is structured around the work of canonical thinkers, politicians, and writers, and considers how they understood and debated the nature and consequences of the imperial experience, from overseas trade and commercial expansion, imperial conquest, competition, and rivalry, to theories of world order and federation.  We will focus on how the history of empire shaped central concepts of political theory such as the state, sovereignty, the nation, property, liberty, and progress.  What were the moral, political, and economic arguments offered for and against empire?  How were domestic politics seen as connected with and constrained by global political interactions and global political structures?  How did imperial powers imagine conditions of stability, progress, and peace?  What was imperial liberalism as a domestic and international ideal?