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Steven F. Hayward

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Patriotism Is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the Arguments that Redefined American Conservatism Hardcover – February 21, 2017

by Steven F. Hayward (Author)

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This book is a lively intellectual history of a small circle of thinkers, especially, but not solely, Harry Jaffa and Walter Berns, who challenged the "mainstream" liberal consensus of political science and history about how the American Founding should be understood. Along the way they changed the course of the conservative movement and had a significant impact on shaping contemporary political debates from constitutional interpretation, civil rights, to the corruption of government today. Most importantly, these thinkers explain the deep reasons for patriotismwhy we should love America not just because it is our country, but because it is a free and just country.

Print length

296 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Encounter Books
Publication date

February 21, 2017
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

159403883X
ISBN-13

978-1594038839
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Steven F. Hayward
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Glenn Ellmers
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Yoram Hazony
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Adrian Vermeule
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Daniel J. Mahoney
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Harry V. Jaffa
104
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven F. Hayward is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the two-volume political biography The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980, and The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter-Revolution, 1980-1989. He has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Weekly Standard, National Review, and numerous other periodicals.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

“Is Walter Berns still alive?”

“Yes. He’s 95 and in poor health, but I think Walter and Harry [age 96] are seeing who can outlive the other as the last act in their long-running feud.”

I offered that whimsical speculation the week after Christmas in 2014 at a meeting at the Claremont Institute. About two weeks later, on Saturday, January 10, the Weekly Standard magazine was the first to publish on its website the sad news that Berns had passed away that morning. Jaffa, also in failing health, had gone to the hospital the day before. He was slipping in and out of consciousness, but intermittently awake enough to make the standard complaints about the usual defects of hospital life. His family and visiting students were guardedly optimistic; he had overcome several acute crises and hospitalizations before. But he took a turn for the worse, and when he passed away a few hours later, the comparison to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams passing on the same day in 1826 became inescapable.

Jefferson and Adams had been bitter political rivals, culminating in the close and initially inconclusive election of 1800 that could easily have ended in the ruin of the still infant nation. Abraham Lincoln taught, as Jaffa never tired of reminding students, that the election of 1800 was the first to prove that ballots could replace bullets as the means of changing a government.

Adams and Jefferson reconciled in later years, chiefly because the two giants of the American Founding shared the same basic political philosophy, which slowly dissolved the rancor of personal ambition and party spirit that dominated their poor relations for the better part of a decade. Some of their political and constitutional disputes had deep theoretical roots, turning on subtle shadings of how republican concepts should be understood and practiced. Jefferson had some radical inclinations at times, like that “God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion” musing he once made in a private letter, while Adams was the prototypical cautious conservative. Arguing politely and respectfully over their differences in a long correspondence became one of their favorite pastimes in retirement.

Jaffa and Berns never contested each other for political office, but their arguments over the course of a decade took on the bitterness and personal invective of partisan strife. “In your present state of mind,” Jaffa wrote in one public letter to Berns, “nothing less than a metaphysical two-by-four across the frontal bone would capture your attention.” One of Berns’s retorts began: “Who will rid us of this pest of a priest?” Unlike Jefferson and Adams, they never reconciled their intellectual differences, although the feud gradually burned itself out, and the two old giants did once sit together and talk cordially, if a bit stiffly, over lunch in Washington, a meal carefully brokered by the Claremont Institute around 2005. It wasn’t necessary to confiscate the forks and knives. By then Jaffa had turned his attention to new feuds with other targets, and Berns was happy to pass the bull’s-eye on his back to Allan Bloom, Robert Bork, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and Justice Antonin Scalia.

Epic academic feuds are common, but are often about trivial or obscure matters. It is a mistake to explain the Jaffa-Berns quarrel as an example of the narcissism of small differences, or still less the simple pride or one-upmanship typical of most academic fights that have little consequence in the real world. But the differences between Jaffa and Berns and their allied camps that seem abstract or remote on the surface are connected to a serious question, perhaps the most serious political question of this or any time: What kind of country is America? What is the right or best basis for patriotism? Is democracy capable of being understood and conducted nobly? Above all, can these questions be answered without recourse to pondering deeply the nature and condition of the human soul?

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Encounter Books (February 21, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 296 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 159403883X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594038839
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,190,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,142 in Nationalism (Books)
- #3,875 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #9,030 in History & Theory of Politics

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Steven N. Gosney

Food for the brain told with humor and insight. A powerful contribution to understanding the ideas behind the politics of today.

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

First: Be sure to check if the review is based on a verified purchase - looks like the trolls are out already. With that in mind, all I can say is: Wow. This book is not at all what I expected. With its bland, old fashioned cover and obscure subject matter, I was prepared for a snooze, but instead I have been treated to a gem of a book that delves into the minds of two of Professor Hayward's associates --- Jaffa and Berns. The sense of humor Hayward infuses throughout the book makes it very readable. For example, the author tells the story of a funny descirption of Jaffa. An associate complained that Jaffa "was the type of man who stood behind the front lines, points his weapon at the backs of his friends and shoots." In a similarly funny way, Hayward describes Berns as follows: "Underneath that rough and gruff exterior beats a heart of stone." Wonderful descriptions of two complex and extremely intelligent professors who offered invaluable insights into the human political condition. The two professors specialized in very similar academic circles, and agreed on most conclusions, but disagreed viciously and personally. The nature of the debate provides clarity into the present state of politics and constantly provides little "a-ha" moments for the reader. Professor Hayward delves at length into the differing ways that professors Jaffa and Berns viewed the relationship of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and how this debate relates to the present political situation. A complex subject but very interesting to any student of the United States founding. Understand that this is a deep dive into the thoughts of two prominent intellectuals, and as such has a very serious core, albeit told with a grin.

Overall, this book is a very funny treatment of the author's professional mentors, and the book is an attempt to reconcile these disagreements by a student who knew and loved both men. The author's writing style makes the subject matter come alive with humor and wit. The tome begins with a discussion of the two rival personalities. I cannot remember a book introduction that made me laugh out loud, but this one did. I was taking the book around the office to read portions to my office mates. Here is an example. From when professor Jaffa was selected as part of a jury pool, and was asked by the lawyer what he thought of expert psychiatric testimony, to which Professor Jaffa replied: "Anyone who would put credence in the testimony of a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined." Great!

I am sure the media / educrat / propaganda minsters will try to lower the ratings on this book. Be sure to check if the review is based on a verified purchase. Don't be misled -- this one is worth reading. If you are tired of surface treatments of important subjects, and want to really get a ringside seat into the minds of some great thinkers, this book is for you.

51 people found this helpful

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Mike Sabo

A Masterful Account of Jaffa and Berns

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2017

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Steve Hayward does a masterful job in explaining the theoretical and historical foundations of modern conservatism through a study of the life and teachings of two important teachers of political philosophy in the twentieth century, Harry Jaffa and Walter Berns. With the help of Jaffa and Berns--men of extraordinary intellectual firepower and scholastic rigor--Hayward examines such important and interesting topics as the American Founding, the statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln, constitutional interpretation, and the rise of the Progressives, which culminates in the biggest threat to constitutional government today: the administrative state. Though some readers may think Hayward hedges too much on whether Jaffa or Berns is ultimately superior (he was, after all, a student of Jaffa), his reticence on this question is a benefit of the book, because it allows the reader to come to his own conclusions rather than accept opinions from authority (a pedagogical method that is synonymous with the purpose of philosophy, or the quest for wisdom).

The book's most important purpose is to show that patriotism must be grounded in both reason and the passions--the mind and the heart. Though America is certainly based upon philosophical truths which are accessible to anyone with reason, America is also a nation made of up citizens who must be capable of a certain level of self-government. This is especially important today for both liberals and conservatives--the former who without a trace of irony ground patriotism upon such flimsy concepts as diversity and the latter who tend to think America is an idea simply.

Hayward has written a important volume that should be on the bookshelf of every patriotic American.

24 people found this helpful

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DKM

worthwhile but falls short

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2017

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The book was interesting, but could have been much better. As others have noted, it very much has the character of "inside baseball," with a lot of references and arguments that cannot really be appreciated by those not already familiar with the Straussian world within which the author writes. (I'm familiar with that world, and understood pretty much all of the material, but can't imagine somebody who isn't familiar getting a lot more than half of it without reading Jaffa and Lincoln, e.g.) As others have also noted, the book is much more about Jaffa than Berns, I think to an unwarranted degree given the title; in particular, a discussion of Walter Berns that does not give some real attention to what happened to him and others at Cornell is patently deficient. A good discussion of, and reflection on, that situation, the longstanding corruption in American elite higher education, and the lessons one might draw about the difficulties and risks of education in the first principles of politics for the many in a democracy, could have been a very worthwhile complement to the discussion about Jaffa and his championing of Lincoln as one who engaged in such education in an earlier era through his speeches and actions.

2 people found this helpful

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Nick DeBenedetto

Fascinating

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2017

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As someone who has recently been introduced to Strauss and the Straussian school of thought, I found this book to be a very timely and interesting read. I feel that Hayward does an excellent job in presenting a wide range of ideas that have shaped American conservative thought. It is really fascinating to learn about the philosophical underpinnings of the conservative movement and to explore some of the key differences in different strains of conservative thought. The more context you have about the history of conservatism, the Straussians, and political philosophy more broadly, the better off you will be. Still, this book isn't impossible to pick up without much context. In a worst case scenario one could read through it once, obtain a whole new list of works, topics, and authors to explore and come back to it again for a fuller understanding of Hayward's presentation.

3 people found this helpful

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