"American Government and the Pursuit of Happiness," NBC television series program schedule and transcripts, 1957

This collection contains the papers of E. E. Schattschneider, a political scientist who spent the majority of his career at Wesleyan University. This collection is organized into seven series and primarily reflects Schattschneider's research interests from the 1950s until his death in 1971. All series are arranged alphabetically by name or subject and chronologically thereunder, with the exception of Series 3, Teaching, Wesleyan Government Department, Student Papers, each section of which is arranged chronologically, and alphabetically thereunder. Schattschneider's original order and nomenclature for folder titles have been retained throughout wherever possible; renaming and further description is present where the original titles have been nonexistant or extremely misleading.

Series 1, Correspondence, includes primarily incoming correspondence concerning professional activities, teaching, speeches and publications. Other notable groups include correspondence with Schattschneider's publishers concerning several of his books, organizational correspondence relating to Schattschneider's NBC television series "American Government and the Pursuit of Happiness" (1957), and correspondence concerning visiting professorships at American universities. Correspondents include many elected officials from Connecticut from the 1940s-60s including Chester Bowles, John Dempsey, and Abraham Ribicoff. Other correspondents include Harold H. Burton, J. William Fulbright, Samuel P. Huntington, Estes Kefauver, Henry Cabot Lodge, Adlai Stevenson, and Arthur T. Vanderbilt. Cross-references have been noted for persons appearing in more than one location if their corporate or university affiliation changes. Correspondence notation lists the amount of incoming correspondence first, followed by outgoing correspondence (e.g. Brown, Joseph R. 3/0, 1967-68).

Series 2, Writings and Speeches, contains notes, drafts, corrected typescripts, and author proofs for several of Schattschneider's books including Party Government, A Guide to the Study of Public Affairs, The Semi-Sovereign People, and Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government. This series also contains documents, including corrected typescripts, for an unpublished volume or volumes titled, at various times, The Great American Experiment and The Resolution of Conflict - An Explanation of American Government, the latter of which Schattschneider was completing at the time of his death, and typescripts of several unpublished speeches and lectures.

Included in other series are student projects from Schattschneider's seminars on performing local community surveys, subject files of background material and notes for individual books as well as general subject files, family photographs, a documentary film written and presented by Schattschneider, and a collection of books annotated by Schattschneider.