Crisis as Critique of the Founding

Abstract

Harry Jaffa had long retired by the time I arrived at his old department. But he was around on occasion in my first few years at Claremont McKenna, and some graduate students at neighboring Claremont Graduate University still revered Jaffa in a manner that tended toward idolatry. Stories about his preoccupation with himself still circulated among faculty, many of whom had long been his colleagues. Even some of his friends found him tiresome and his friendship a burden. Hearing about the quarrels between Jaffa andMartin Diamond, it was easy to sympathize with Diamond’s sobriety and sense of humor against Jaffa’s self-important crusades. I got to witness Jaffa’s famous self-absorption firsthand, as on several occasions I had to interrupt himwhilemoderating theQ and A for a visiting speaker. Jaffa, oblivious to everyone else in the room, was sure he was the main event and sought to conduct a Socratic dialogue with the speaker where he could control the questions and direction of the dialogue. I quickly learned to cut him off. And there were the awful screeds and quarrels that seemed to account for somuch of his writing. All in all, it putme off returning to Crisis of the House Divided.