Assuming we want college/university students to get a well-rounded education and information to make the choice of what they agree with and what they don’t, it’s probably a good idea to give them books from various perspectives and then let them sort out how they feel about it, in addition to some “survey” books that give a broad outline of various topics.

So I’d suggest the following (in no particular order and with the understanding that with some of these m, I,personally, disagree with almost every word found in the book):

1. Leo Strauss and Joseph Cropsey - History of Political Philosophy (Great as a broad outline)

2. Daniel Drezner - Theories of International Politics and Zombies (Another great and attention-keeping general outline)

3. Pauline Maier - Ratification - The People Debate the Constitution: 1787 - 1788 (A great book that gives a broad and relatively objective outline of the beginnings of the U.S. Constitution, and so touches on American history of politics, intersection of law and politics, etc...)

4. John Rawls - A Theory of Justice to be read in conjunction with, Robert Nozick - Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Great as a combination to understand competing political philosophies and their fundamentals and foundations)

5. Carl Schmidtt - The Concept of the Political (He was a piece of garbage human being and his ideas, out of context, are silly. But this is an important book for understanding how political philosophy can work, and provides a unique perspective on politics.

6. Richard Posner - Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy (A kind of “4th way” in addition to the the broad concepts promoted by Rawls, Nozick, and Schmidt.

7. And then probably throw some stuff in their like Hayek’s Constitution of Liberty, Proudhon’s What is Property, the Federslist and Anti-federalist papers, some modern political science general textbook, and then maybe some sort of world history that also touches on political science. Finally, throw in some economic history articles or short books from various schools of thought (some Murray Rothbard, some Karl Marx, some Henry George, some Milton Friedman, and some Keynes, and then at least one book that gives a good world history outline, with a little bit of everything and extensive bibliographies.

And your curriculum is set.

Teachers and curriculum builders feel free to consult with me, my advice is literally free.

:)