What would be a good response to this?
Let me begin by stating that this has been one of the most difficult topics to write. I decided to choose this because, well, no one else had chosen it and as per the instructions all questions were supposed to be chosen. This may very well be my downfall.
William Archibald Dunning is most widely known for his major work "History of Political theories" which was a three-volume work which covered two thousand years of European thoughts (Chambers). Dunning also wrote studies on reconstruction, "Essays on the Civil war and Reconstruction" and "Reconstruction, Political and Economic" (Colombia).
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey William Dunning attended Columbia where he received his Bachelor's of arts and his Doctorate immediately after (Merriam 629). Soon after he decided to become a professor of his beloved school, Columbia. He would spend the next forty years at Columbia to become a twice president of American Historical Association as well as American Political Science Association. In December, 1904 Dr. Dunning went on to write his infamous "A Century of Politics" as a journal entry in "The North American Review".
During his Journal entry "A Century of Politics" Dr. Dunning delves into the differences between Liberalism and Conservatism in the nineteenth Century. When he begins to go into each side he states, "Fundamentally, Nineteenth-century Liberalism meant democracy. Its ultimate aim was to break down the bars which excluded from political life the classes of people whose intellectual, social and economic significance was becoming unmistakably predominant" (A Century of Politics 804). To me, what he is saying is that Liberalism means democracy, which ultimately means fairness. He continues to ramble on about the nature of liberalism. Next, he goes on to speak about the Constitution and how the liberals demanded that the constitution be written and how it was a great triumph for the Liberal party. Next, he goes on to state, "To Conservatives, however, the written constitution was an object of abhorrence." (A Century of Politics 805). He is stating that the Conservatives were disgusted by the constitution.
To me, Dr. Dunning is attacking one side or politics and idolizing the other side. He is not biased at all in his Journal. Though he is speaking about both sides of the spectrum he is only trying to convince the reader of the one side. He does go into the policies is Europe, Italy and Germany as a whole as well since they are where we, in America, got our original views from. Though I was trying to read it all word for word many of the words ran together and it was difficult for me to fully comprehend.
In part two of "A Century of Politics" Dr. Dunning goes into the theoretical and practical aspects of Nationalism. Nationalism is, in a nutshell, patriotism. It is when a common goal of a nation is to advance or have political independence. Honestly as I continued to read his rambling made less and less sense. Ultimately, Dunning was trying to point out different political views and his opinion behind them.