Harry Jaffa was an intellectual leader of American conservatism, particularly as it developed in the second half of the twentieth century. In 2013, when Jaffa was 94 years old, theNational Review called him “the most important conservative political theorist of his generation” (Miller 2013, 34). When Jaffa died, two years later, his eulogists all echoed that judgment. Charles Kesler, for instance, told theLos Angeles Times that “Harry helped to reshape the American conservative movement” (Woo 2015, B8). Jaffa spoke about himself in similar terms; he described himself as a conservative and talked about his work in terms of building “the conservative movement” (Benson 2012, 23). Most such accounts of Jaffa’s career tie his influence on American conservatism to his reading of Abraham Lincoln, particularly in Crisis of the House Divided. Writing for the Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward (2015) puts it this way: “It is no exaggeration to say that [Jaffa] singlehandedly caused conservatives to embrace Lincoln after a long period of indifference or even hostility toward the Great Emancipator.” Joseph Fornieri writes that throughout Jaffa’s work, “Lincoln’s statesmanship figures prominently as the gold standard of measurement” for American conservatism (2016, 43). Generally speaking, I agree with these assessments. It would be hard to disagreewith them. Jaffa surely helped to shape the thinking of those calling themselves American conservatives during the second half of the twentieth century, and Jaffa’s reading of Lincoln was a core part of his teaching.
{"title":"Conservatism in Crisis","authors":"Susan McWilliams Barndt","doi":"10.1086/724492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724492","url":null,"abstract":"Harry Jaffa was an intellectual leader of American conservatism, particularly as it developed in the second half of the twentieth century. In 2013, when Jaffa was 94 years old, theNational Review called him “the most important conservative political theorist of his generation” (Miller 2013, 34). When Jaffa died, two years later, his eulogists all echoed that judgment. Charles Kesler, for instance, told theLos Angeles Times that “Harry helped to reshape the American conservative movement” (Woo 2015, B8). Jaffa spoke about himself in similar terms; he described himself as a conservative and talked about his work in terms of building “the conservative movement” (Benson 2012, 23). Most such accounts of Jaffa’s career tie his influence on American conservatism to his reading of Abraham Lincoln, particularly in Crisis of the House Divided. Writing for the Weekly Standard, Steven Hayward (2015) puts it this way: “It is no exaggeration to say that [Jaffa] singlehandedly caused conservatives to embrace Lincoln after a long period of indifference or even hostility toward the Great Emancipator.” Joseph Fornieri writes that throughout Jaffa’s work, “Lincoln’s statesmanship figures prominently as the gold standard of measurement” for American conservatism (2016, 43). Generally speaking, I agree with these assessments. It would be hard to disagreewith them. Jaffa surely helped to shape the thinking of those calling themselves American conservatives during the second half of the twentieth century, and Jaffa’s reading of Lincoln was a core part of his teaching.","PeriodicalId":41928,"journal":{"name":"American Political Thought","volume":"12 1","pages":"233 - 243"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43105846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I focus on Harry Jaffa ’ s teaching within the scope of my experience for two suf-fi cient reasons. Most importantly, there is a suf fi cient distinction between one ’ s teaching and one ’ s publications that there is no squared overlay of teachings and publications. That distinction does not emerge from considerations of esoter-icism and exotericism. It emerges, rather, from the force of mutual exploration between teacher and student, on the one hand, and the dynamics of exhortation, on the other hand. Although one may write in an exploratory manner, seeking to engage readers in discourse more or less open-ended
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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.
{"title":"Crisis as Critique of the Founding","authors":"G. Thomas","doi":"10.1086/724455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724455","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":41928,"journal":{"name":"American Political Thought","volume":"12 1","pages":"256 - 266"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44419029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 2019 I published America’s Revolutionary Mind (ARM), subtitled “AMoral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It” (Thompson 2019b). The book is the first in what is hoped to be a three-volume study of America’s revolutionary and founding periods. ARM explores the nature, causes, andmeaning of the AmericanRevolution. The book’s general purpose is twofold: first, to elucidate the logic, principles, and significance of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of what I referred to as America’s revolutionary mind; and second, to shed light on what John Adams called the real American Revolution—that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the 15 years before 1775. More specifically, ARM uses the Declaration of Independence as a kind of ideological roadmap bywhich to chart the intellectual andmoral terrain traveled by American revolutionaries as they searched for new moral principles to deal
{"title":"The Anatomy of a Smear: A Response to Ken I. Kersch","authors":"C. Thompson","doi":"10.1086/724515","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724515","url":null,"abstract":"In 2019 I published America’s Revolutionary Mind (ARM), subtitled “AMoral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It” (Thompson 2019b). The book is the first in what is hoped to be a three-volume study of America’s revolutionary and founding periods. ARM explores the nature, causes, andmeaning of the AmericanRevolution. The book’s general purpose is twofold: first, to elucidate the logic, principles, and significance of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of what I referred to as America’s revolutionary mind; and second, to shed light on what John Adams called the real American Revolution—that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the 15 years before 1775. More specifically, ARM uses the Declaration of Independence as a kind of ideological roadmap bywhich to chart the intellectual andmoral terrain traveled by American revolutionaries as they searched for new moral principles to deal","PeriodicalId":41928,"journal":{"name":"American Political Thought","volume":"12 1","pages":"278 - 294"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42097264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editors’ Note","authors":"Jeremy D. Bailey, Susan McWilliams Barndt","doi":"10.1086/724516","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724516","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41928,"journal":{"name":"American Political Thought","volume":"12 1","pages":"277 - 277"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49041654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Lincoln-Douglas debates were between a representative of the Democratic Party and a representative of the Republican Party. Stephen A. Douglas began his presentation in the fi rst debate by declaring, “ We are present here to-day for the purpose of having a joint discussion as the representatives of the two great political parties of the State and Union, upon the principles in issue between these parties and this vast concourse of people ” (Lincoln 1953, 3:1). Lincoln stood before the voters as a representative of the Republican Party. He began his presentation in the second debate by stating, “ I have supposed myself, since the organization of the Republican party at Bloomington, in May 1856, bound as a party man by the platforms of the party ” (3:39). He continued, “ if any one expects me — in the case of my elec[tion] — that I will do anything not signi fi ed by our Republican platform . . . , I tell you very frank that person will be deceived ” (3:71 – 72). What the Republican and Democratic Parties stood for and which party was more faithful to the Constitution of the United States were the central issues in the Lincoln-Douglas debates.
林肯和道格拉斯的辩论是在民主党代表和共和党代表之间进行的。在第一次辩论中，斯蒂芬·a·道格拉斯(Stephen a . Douglas)在演讲开始时宣布:“我们今天在这里是为了作为州和联邦两大政党的代表，就这些政党和广大人民之间存在争议的原则进行联合讨论”(Lincoln 1953, 3:1)。林肯作为共和党的代表站在选民面前。在第二场辩论中，他这样开场:“自从共和党于1856年5月在布卢明顿成立以来，我一直认为自己是一个受党的纲领约束的党员”(3:39)。他接着说，“如果有人期望我——就我的竞选而言——我会做任何不符合我们共和党政纲的事情……我实在告诉你们，那人是被欺哄的”(3:71 - 72)。共和党和民主党的立场是什么，哪个党更忠于美国宪法，这些都是林肯和道格拉斯辩论的核心问题。
{"title":"Partisan Supremacy in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates","authors":"M. Graber","doi":"10.1086/724549","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724549","url":null,"abstract":"The Lincoln-Douglas debates were between a representative of the Democratic Party and a representative of the Republican Party. Stephen A. Douglas began his presentation in the fi rst debate by declaring, “ We are present here to-day for the purpose of having a joint discussion as the representatives of the two great political parties of the State and Union, upon the principles in issue between these parties and this vast concourse of people ” (Lincoln 1953, 3:1). Lincoln stood before the voters as a representative of the Republican Party. He began his presentation in the second debate by stating, “ I have supposed myself, since the organization of the Republican party at Bloomington, in May 1856, bound as a party man by the platforms of the party ” (3:39). He continued, “ if any one expects me — in the case of my elec[tion] — that I will do anything not signi fi ed by our Republican platform . . . , I tell you very frank that person will be deceived ” (3:71 – 72). What the Republican and Democratic Parties stood for and which party was more faithful to the Constitution of the United States were the central issues in the Lincoln-Douglas debates.","PeriodicalId":41928,"journal":{"name":"American Political Thought","volume":"12 1","pages":"222 - 232"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44833836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":Race and the Rhetoric of Resistance","authors":"Kundai Chirindo","doi":"10.1086/723445","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723445","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41928,"journal":{"name":"American Political Thought","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42074185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":":The Roots of American Individualism: Political Myth in the Age of Jackson","authors":"Davis Brown","doi":"10.1086/723440","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/723440","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41928,"journal":{"name":"American Political Thought","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49622528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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