Culture Wars

The Culture Wars

Why do people disagree so vehemently about gender identity, affirmative action, wealth redistribution, or climate change? Why do people get angry when their core beliefs are challenged? How does social media (and other technology) contribute to polarization and the breakdown of social cohesion? The concept of a "culture war" has existed in American discourse for over 30 years, describing a movement toward group affiliation based on contemporary expressions of moral virtue rather than more traditional categories such as religious or political affiliation, ethnicity, social class, or economic status. This course examines how such a political cleavage has come to exist, and its implications for social cohesion and trust in public institutions. We will explore the ideas and evidence surrounding this concept, including the nature/nurture debate about the origin of variation in social norms.

Assignments

Artifact prompt form
Presentation rubric (sign-up)
Peer grading form
Reading/debate responses

Course Schedule

Texts

Please note that posting a text does not necessarily mean its content is endorsed. Some of this content is academic, some is popular and polemical (ie. artifacts intended to stir debate).

Primary texts

Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. First Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage Books, 2013. (EPUB)
Hunter, J. D., & Wolfe, A. Is There a Culture War? A Dialogue on Values and American Public Life. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institutions Press, 2007. (a foll0w-up to Hunter's 1991 book: Culture Wars: A Struggle to Define America)
Thomson, Irene Taviss. Culture Wars and Enduring American Dilemmas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010.

Week 1: What differentiates cultural/moral issues from other ones?

Canada and the Culture Wars: Angus Reid Institute (Part II)
Mutz, Diana C., and Jahnavi S. Rao. 2018. “The Real Reason Liberals Drink Lattes.” PS: Political Science & Politics 51 (4): 762–67.
Williams, R. H. Is America in a Culture War? Yes - No - Sort Of. The Christian Century 114 (November 12, 1997). from https://www.religion-online.org/article/is-america-in-a-culture-a-war-yes-no-sort-of/
Artifacts for analysis:
- Peter MacKay: Trudeau's cynical gutting of Canadian history
- Conservative outrage over Canada’s modernized passports is just more culture war chaos

Week 2: Interrogating determinism - Demographics, genes, and the left-right distinction

Bobbio, Noberto. Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996), 30-37, 60-79.

Week 3/4; Political Psychology - How groups became the contemporary unit of evaluation

Sears, David O., Leonie Huddy, Robert Jervis. 2003. The Psychologies Underling Political Psychology. In Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, ed. David O. Sears, Leonie Huddy, and Robert Jervis. New York: Oxford University Press, 3-16.
Jost, John T., Christopher M. Federico, and Jaime L. Napier. 2009. ’’Political Ideology: Its Structure, Functions, and Elective Affinities.” Annual Review of Psychology 60: 307-37
Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice.” Science 211(January): 453-458.
Converse, Philip E. 1964. The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics. In Ideology and Discontent, ed. David E. Apter. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 206-261. [summary]

Week 4/5: Income, Class, and "the Elite" - Perceived and actual mechanisms of control

Maks-Solomon, Cory, and Elizabeth Rigby. 2019. “Are Democrats Really the Party of the Poor? Partisanship, Class, and Representation in the U.S. Senate.” Political Research Quarterly, July. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912919862623.
Thomson, Ch. 8 (see primary texts)
Druckman, James N., and Nelson, Kjersten R. 2003. Framing and Deliberation: How Citizens. Conversations Limit Elite Influence. American Journal of Political Science. 47(October): 729- 745.
Meng, D. L., & Berezina, E. (2020). The Role of Personality and Self-Motivation in Political (Dis)Engagement. Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia, 24(1), 87-98. https://doi.org/10.7454/ hubs.asia.2070220
Chatterji, Aaron K., and Michael W. Toffel. 2018. “The New CEO Activists.” Harvard Business Review. January 1, 2018. https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-new-ceo-activists
Global Strategy Group. 2019. “Doing Business in an Activist World.”
Reading on ESG TBD

Week 5/6: Faith and the "clash of civilizations" - Good and evil in secular vs. sacred domains

Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Affairs 72 (Summer): 22-49
Perry, Glenn E. 2002. “Huntington and his Critics: The West and Islam.” Arab Studies Quarterly 24 (Winter): 31-48.
Murray Douglas. 2022. The War on the West First ed. New York NY: Broadside Books. Ch 2 + 4
- Video summary
Goodwin, Matthew, and Caitlin Milazzo. 2017. “Taking Back Control? Investigating the Role of Immigration in the 2016 Vote for Brexit.” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 19 (3): 450–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148117710799
How sanctuary cities actually work - YouTube (by Vox Media)
Podcast with Dr. John McWhorter on Wokeness as New Religion
- transcript in Current Affairs Magazine
- James Patterson in National Affairs: Wokeness and the New Religious Establishment
- ‘Wokeness’ and ‘pseudo-religions’: Catholic colleges look for ways to challenge growing cancel culture
Strachan Owen and John MacArthur. 2021. Christianity and Wokeness : How the Social Justice Movement Is Hijacking the Gospel-And the Way to Stop It. Washington D.C: Salem Books.
- summary of book
Kingsnorth, Paul. "The Tale of the Machine." The Abbey of Misrule. June 29, 2023. https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/the-tale-of-the-machine?r=9loh6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web.

Week 7: Life & Death - Debates over who determines the sanctity of life (human vs. divine agency)

Listen to episode 167 of the No Jargon Podcast (“A Case of Life and Death”): https://scholars.org/podcast/case-life-and-death
Evans, John H. 2002. “Polarization in Abortion Attitudes in U.S. Religious Traditions, 1972–1998.” Sociological Forum 17 (3): 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019627006778
Ethical Issues in Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Canada: Cardus

Week 8/9: Gender and Queerness - The genesis and evolution of a new social order

Kaufmann, Karen M., and John R. Petrocik. 1999. “The Changing Politics of American Men: Understanding the Sources of the Gender Gap.” American Journal of Political Science 43 (3): 864–87. https://doi.org/10.2307/2991838
Setzler, Mark, and Alixandra B. Yanus. 2018. “Why Did Women Vote for Donald Trump?” PS: Political Science & Politics 51 (3): 523–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096518000355.
Murray Douglas. 2019. The Madness of Crowds : Gender Race and Identity. London: Bloomsbury Continuum. Ch. 1, 2, and 4.
Artifacts for analysis:

Week 10: Race: Indigeneity, Blackness, and Whiteness - Demographic shifts change the conversation

Hooghe, Marc, and Ruth Dassonneville. 2018. “Explaining the Trump Vote: The Effect of Racist Resentment and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments.” PS: Political Science & Politics 51 (3): 528–34. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096518000367
Eisenberg, Avigail. 2013. "Indigenous Cultural Rights and Identity Politics in Canada." Review of Constitutional Studies, Volume 18, Issue 1.
Murray Douglas. 2019. The Madness of Crowds : Gender Race and Identity. London: Bloomsbury Continuum. Ch. 3.
Artifact for analysis:

Week 11: The Environment - Debates over the balance between attraction ("market") and compulsion ("law")

Artifacts:
- Hoffman, Andrew J. "Climate Science as Culture War." Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Ross School of Business Working Paper, Working Paper No. 1361, June 2012. Stanford Social Innovation Review 10, no. 4.
- Krugman, Paul. "Climate Is Now a Culture War Issue." The New York Times, August 7, 2023. Accessed Dec 10, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/07/opinion/climate-is-now-a-culture-war-issue.html
- Paddison, Laura and Nilsen, Ella. "Climate change is now a culture war between Europe and the US." CNN. Accessed Dec 10, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/23/climate/climate-culture-wars-europe-us-int/index.html
- Novelli, Bill. "Climate Change is the Next Frontier in America's Culture Wars." Fortun4 e. Accessed Dec 10, 2023.
- Berry, Kate A. "Beyond the American culture wars: A call for environmental leadership and strengthening networks." Regions and Cohesion, vol. 7, no. 2, summer 2017, pp. 90+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A536300528/AONE?u=anon~721252e&sid=googleScholar&xid=67fe9017. Accessed 9 Jan. 2024.

Week 12: Conclusion - Politics as religion and culture?

Mason, Lilliana. 2018. Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. (Ch 1)

Supplementary texts

Abrams, S. J., Fiorina, M. P., & Pope, J. C. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. New York: Pearson Education, 2006.
Browning, D. S., Miller-McLemore, B. J., Couture, P. D., Lyon, K. B., & Franklin, R. M. From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate. Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, pp. 50-72.
Devine, Ph. E. Human Diversity and the Culture Wars: A Philosophical Perspective on Contemporary Cultural Conflict. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1996.
Eck, D. L. What is Pluralism? 2006. In: On Common Ground: World Religions in America, 1997 (Revised 2006) - The Pluralism Project, Harvard University.
Fields, S. Culture Wars and Terrorism. The Washington Times, November 12, 2001.
Hunter, J. D. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. Making Sense of the Battles Over the Family, Art, Education, Law, and Politics. New York: Basic Books, 1991. (see "Cultural Conflict in America" and "The Anatomy of Cultural Conflict")
Mason, Lilliana. Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 2018
Nuechterlein, J. Culture War No More? First Things, A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, October 1999.
O’Reilly, B. Culture Warrior. New York: Broadway Books, 2006.
Rabkin, J. A Supreme Court in the Culture Wars. Public Interest, no. 125 (Fall 1996).
Rieff, D. Therapy or Democracy? The Culture Wars Twenty Years On. World Policy Journal 15 (1998).