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In the past half-dozen years, Americans and foreign observers have suddenly seen the United States in a shocking new light. But why should recent events have come as such a surprise to so many? What explains the flawed perceptions that dominated previous popular and scholarly understandings of America? These are the central questions the seminar aims to answer. Focusing on the intellectual dynamics of the current American crisis, the seminar traces the roles that ideas have played in U.S. political and economic history, and it explores how those roles have changed during the past half-century. The seminar is designed for Ph.D. students, D.I.A. students, and first-year M.A.I.R. students with sufficient academic preparation in U.S. Studies and second-year M.A. students concentrating in U.S. Foreign Policy. It will enrich the work of any thoughtful social-science researcher or student of American political development.