Walter Dean Burnham: Critical Realignments in Political Science

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

Walter Dean Burnham was one of the most influential political analysts of American parties and political development. Presaging the emergence of the field of American Political Development, Burnham advanced a novel theoretical and spatial paradigm for the study of order and change in American politics. His pathbreaking work on the mainsprings of American politics remains a touchstone for scholars working at the intersection of politics and history and examining the critical role that elections, wars, and depressions play in shaping and reshaping the American political order. This roundtable of leading scholars in American politics and political development reflect on Burnham’s scholarly contribution to the study of American political structure and change.

Sub Unit

• Panels

Cosponsor

• Division 7: Politics and History

Chair

• Peter Trubowitz London School of Economics

Presenters

• Thomas Ferguson University of Massachusetts, Boston

• Cathie Jo Martin Boston University Political Science

• Nicole Mellow Williams College

• Sidney M. Milkis University of Virginia

• Jesus Velasco Tarleton State University