| Dr. Courtney Brown |
Office Hours: Tuesday 11:20-12:20 Class Time: T-TH 8:30-9:45 Office: Social Sciences 318 email: polscb@emory.edu |
GREAT POLITICAL LEADERS (Revised 4 September 2003)
This is a Freshman Seminar in which we examine theories, history, psychology, and politics that help us understand what makes great political leaders great! This is an intensive writing and discussion course that is designed to be both fun and richly educational. Students are required to write and discuss regular short papers that address various aspects of the course content. Late papers are forgiven twice as long as they are no more than two days late. After that, late papers are penalized. All papers are two to three pages, typed, with normal margins. Be sure to staple each paper. Cover sheets are nice and useful. For each paper, students are to analyze the given political/military leader as per instructions given in class. There are no exams. All students will be required to access the Internet, assigned films, the library, and various other sources in order to obtain material for class discussions and for the short papers. The grades are determined as follows:
10% Attendance (Two absences are permitted without penalty. After that, ..., you don't want to know.)
60% Writing assignments (30% style and 30% content)
10% Class participation
20% Final paper
The Honor Code is strictly enforced in this course. Plagiarism is an honor code violation.
A number of videos will be presented in class, and all students are required to view these presentations. The instructor will introduce students to various theories of leadership. A strategic and psychological profile of great leadership will be modeled in the course. Parts of The Elements of Style will be assigned by the instructor in class.
We will try to cover all or most of the following leaders, depending on time and the flow of the semester:
Konrad Adenauer
Adolph Hitler
Francisco Franco
David Ben-Gurion
Winston Churchill
Charles de Gaulle
John Kennedy
Malcolm X
Mahatma Gandhi
Queen Elizabeth
Margaret Thatcher
Gamal Nasser
Nikita Khruschev
Mao Tse-Tung
Joseph Stalin
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Julius Caesar
Alexander the Great
Horatio Nelson
Napoleon Bonaparte
Ulysses S. Grant
Georgi Zhukov
Required texts:
Great Leaders, Great Tyrants?: Contemporary Views of World Rulers Who Made History, Edited by Arnold Blumberg
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
Personal Memoirs, by Ulysses S. Grant
The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar
Winston Churchill: a Penguin Life by John Keegan
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
WEEKLY TOPICAL OUTLINE
Weeks 1, 2, & 3: The General Parameters of Leadership.
Readings:
Strunk and White: Chapter I and TBA
Week 4: Military Leadership, Part 1
Readings:
Strunk and White: Chapter II and TBA
Week 5: Military Leadership, Part 2
Readings:
TBA
Week 6: Democratic and Military Leadership Conflicts
Readings:
TBA
Week 7: Charismatic Democratic Leadership, Part 1
Readings:
Strunk and White: Chapter III and TBA
Week 8: Charismatic Democratic Leadership, Part 2
Readings:
TBA
Week 9: Authoritarian Leadership, Part 1
Readings:
Strunk and White: Chapter IV and TBA
Week 10: Authoritarian Leadership, Part 2
Readings:
TBA
Week 11: Leadership that Transcends Historical Norms, Part 1
Readings:
Strunk and White: Chapter V and TBA
Week 12: Leadership that Transcends Historical Norms, Part 2
Readings:
TBA
Week 13: Leadership Modeling, Part 1
Readings:
TBA
Week 14: Leadership Modeling, Part 2
Readings:
TBA