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1. Securing the American Ethnoscape: Official Surveys and Literary Interventions
- The University Press of Kentucky
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1 SecuringtheAmericanEthnoscape OfficialSurveysandLiteraryInterventions ThesetimesareunfriendlytowardWorldsalternativetothisone. —ThomasPynchon,Mason&Dixon Everymappressesdownontoaphysicalterrainthatit,inpart,orders and,inpart,effaces. —PhilipFisher,“DemocraticSocialSpace: Whitman,Melville,andthePromise ofAmericanTransparency” The“Fact-Minded”ThomasJefferson WhenJudithShklar,thelateandmuch-reveredHarvardpoliticaltheorist ,deliveredherpresidentialaddressattheAmericanPoliticalScience Association’sannualmeetingin1990,shesaidthatshefelther responsibilities“particularlydeeply.”Oneaspectofthatdepthderived fromherpositionasthefirstfemalepresidentoftheassociation.The otherwasassociatedwithhervocationasapoliticaltheorist.Entitling heraddress“RedeemingAmericanPoliticalThought,”Shklarinsisted thatAmericanpoliticaltheory,“farfrombeingdemeaningandscienti ficallysuperfluous,”oughttobeintegratedintoapoliticalscience thatis,initsbestincarnation,“fact-minded.”1 TheredemptionofAmericanpoliticaltheoryforShklarwastherefore a matter of overcoming its marginal status by challenging the widelyheldpresumptionthatithaslackedscientificrigoreversince thecolonialperiod.Tomakehercase,Shklartreatedwhatshecalled “three political sciences in America,” developed during America’s 2 DeformingAmericanPoliticalThought revolutionary and founding periods. These belong to Thomas Jefferson ,JamesMadison,andAlexanderHamilton,whoseapproaches were“speculativeandphysiological,”“institutionalandhistorical,”and “empiricalandbehavioral,”respectively.2 Onceshecastthe“founding fathers”aspoliticalscientists,thebulkofheraddresstreatedinstances oftheirfact-mindednessandscientificrigor. However, Shklar’s desire to integrate the inaugural period of Americanpoliticaltheoryintoascientificpoliticalsciencedidnotexhaust herhistoricalfocus.Unlikemostofherpredecessors,forwhom theAmericanpoliticaltraditionconstitutedanunambiguouslyproud legacy,Shklarnotedthatamongthe“politicalphenomena”thatdistinguished thedevelopmentofAmericanpoliticaltheorywas,“most deeply...theprevalenceofchattelslavery.”Asaresult,sheasserted, “thiscountryhasembarkedupontwoexperimentssimultaneously:one indemocracy,theotherintyranny.”3 Giventhedominanttendencyof APSApresidentialaddressestocelebrate“theAmericanpoliticaltradition ,”thiswasastunningdeparture.ButShklarofferedanimmediate palliative.Shewentontosuggestthatthestainofchattelslaveryhad beeneffectivelyremoved,thanksinparttothesocialscienceswithin which“thedemocratizationofvalues”isimplicit.Howevertyrannical theinstitutionofslaverywas,a“democraticpoliticalsciencewaseventually tobeexpected.”Andthatpoliticalscience,giventous“inembryonic form”4 byJefferson,Madison,andHamilton,helpedtosanitizea besmirchedAmericandemocratictradition. Yetdespiteherfaithinthedemocraticproclivitiesoftheentiretrajectory ofAmericanpoliticalscience,whichoriginatedinthe“thoughtworld ”5 oftheframersofthenation-state’sfoundingdocuments,Shklar recognizedaflawedperspectivein,forexample,Jefferson’santhropology withwhichhewasabletolegitimatetheunjusttreatmentof“Indians ”andslaves.Butweshouldnotblamesocialscience,sheinsisted, onlythechoiceofinquiries.Jefferson’smistakewashisattemptto“assimilate socialsciencetonaturalhistory.”6 Shedidadmit,however,that ultimately,despiteitsimportantroleinthedemocratizationofvalues, America’searlyversionsofpoliticalsciencehadtheirlimits.Evenwith their exemplary ethos, the founding thinkers “could not imagine a multiracialcitizenry.”7 Remarkably,Shklarwasundauntedbythisfailure ofimagination.Sincethingshaveworkedoutwell—sheimplied thatAmericaachievedademocratic,multiracialpoliticalorder,thanks inparttothescientificorientationofAmericanpoliticaltheory—she [18.223.205.61] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 11:14 GMT) SecuringtheAmericanEthnoscape 3 couldcomfortablyrestrictthetheorizingtowhitefounders.Theperiod ofchattelslaverythatShklarlamented(however“deep”)ismerely oneofthe“politicalphenomena”thatprovoked,inaseeminglypositive way,anAmericanpoliticaltheorythatisstrictlytheprovenanceof Euro-Americans.Shklarfelt,forexample,thatshecouldsafelytreat Jeffersonas“areveredfounderofanationdedicatedtotheuniversal principlesofhumanrightsandindividualliberties,”andignorethe Jeffersonwhommanyhaveseenas“anexampleofthat‘whitemythology ’whichconcealsanoppressiveracialimperialisminalanguageof universalphilanthropy.”8 Shklar’sclaimsforthesocialscienceprobityofallthreethinkers areworthyofanalysis.However...