The Wisdom of Harry Jaffa

Harry V. Jaffa, Professor Emeritus of Government at Claremont McKenna College and the Claremont Graduate School, will turn 93 on October 7th.  Professor Jaffa studied with Leo Strauss at the New School for Social Research in the late 1930s and is, next to Strauss, the greatest political philosopher of the 20th century.  Jaffa's crowning achievements are Crisis of the House Divided:  An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates and A New Birth of Freedom:  Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, it's sequel published 40 years later.  These two works are the best books ever written on Abraham Lincoln and the American Founding; they are arguably the best books ever written on America next to the Founding documents themselves.

Central to Jaffa's thought is the meaning of equality in the American polity.  Is equality the central axiom from which all minor thoughts in America radiate as Lincoln said or is it a self-evident lie as John C. Calhoun argued?  Is America grounded simply on the mere self-interest of the individual or do it's principles imply duties before rights, reason over passion?   Jaffa always took Lincoln's side, but his understanding of equality, Lincoln, and the American Founding changed dramatically during the 40 years between Crisis and A New Birth of Freedom.  That change in Jaffa's thought is the subject of a Master's thesis written by a student in the Master's American History and Government program at Ashland University.  It is quite long--47 pages--but it is well worth reading.  It is very clear and readable and may be one of the best papers ever written on Jaffa's thought.