Books
Expediency and Morality in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The Anchor Review 2 (1957).Slavery — A Battle Revisited
– New Leader 41:30 (August 18-25, 1958). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Created Equal: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 by Paul Angle.
“Value Consensus” in Democracy: The Issue in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 745-753. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
–Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 50th Anniversary Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
This edition includes a new introduction by the author to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the original 1959 publication.
Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the House Divided is the standard historiography of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Harry Jaffa provides the definitive analysis of the political… More
In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859
– Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959).Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859: The Great Debate Continued
– In Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds., In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Source of American Caesarism: Review of Harry V. Jaffa
– Willmoore Kendall, National Review, November 7, 1959.Excerpt: The idea of natural right is not so easily reducible to the equality clause, and there are better ways of demonstrating the possibility of self-government than imposing one’s… More
Lincoln and Douglas
– Allen Nevins, New Leader 43:20 (May 1960).Review of Crisis of the House Divided.
Reply to Allan Nevins’ review of Crisis of the House Divided
– New Leader (June 20, 1960).Review: The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen
– The Journal of Southern History 28:2 (May 1962), pp. 251-253. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review: Patriotism and Morality
– Chicago Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Summer/Autumn, 1962), pp. 136-142. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Review of Congressman Abraham Lincoln by Donald W. Riddle.
On the Nature of Civil and Religious Liberty: Reflections on the Centennial of the Gettysburg Address
– In Melvin Laird, ed., The Conservative Papers (New York: Doubleday, 1964). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics
– New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.Summary from the Publisher: This is the first of four books by Harry V. Jaffa reprinted by the Claremont Institute in honor of his 80th birthday. This book was originally published by… More
Reconstruction, Old and New
– National Review, April 20, 1965.Review of The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 by Kenneth M. Stampp
Lincoln and the Cause of Freedom
– National Review, September 21, 1965, pp. 827-829. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Contra Herndon
– National Review, March 30, 1973, p. 376.Review of Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish by David Elton Trueblood.
Portrait of a Patriot
– National Review, May 25, 1973. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen.
Partly Federal, Partly National: On the Political Theory of the American Civil War
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed. A Nation of States (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1974). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Debate: “Time on the Cross”
– National Review, March 28, 1975.Review of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman.
Equality as a Conservative Principle
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Kendall & Carey: The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition." Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 8 (1975): 471.Excerpt: That Conservatism should search for its meaning implies of course that Conservatism does not have the meaning for which it is searching. This might appear paradoxical, since a… More
The Heresy of Equality: Bradford Replies to Jaffa
– M. E. Bradford, Modern Age (Winter 1976).Excerpt: This essay is a direct response to Harry Jaffa’s “Equality as a Conservative Principle,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, VI11 (June, 1975), pp. 471-505, which is itself a… More
Equality, Justice, and the American Revolution: In Reply to Bradford’s “The Heresy of Equality”
– Modern Age, Spring 1977. Reprinted in How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1978).Fellows’ Choice
– Hadley Arkes, The Wilson Quarterly 1:3 (Spring 1977), pp. 127-128.Review of Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Inventing the Past
– The St. John's Review 33:1 (Autumn 1981).“In Defense of Political Philosophy” Defended: A Rejoinder to Walter Berns
– Modern Age 27:3 (Summer/Fall 1983). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Harry V. Jaffa and American History by Herman Belz
– Herman Belz, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 1984.Excerpt: One of the most important contributions to American history and political science in the past generation is the work of a political philosopher who, in a significant sense, is an… More
Bradford and Jaffa: Once More on Lincoln
– Harry V. Jaffa and Melvin E. Bradford, American Spectator, June 1985.Excerpt: Two eminent Lincoln scholars disagree on the legacy of Father Abraham.
On Jaffa, Lincoln, Marshall, and Original Intent
– Lewis E. Lehrman, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Foreword introduces the article to follow written by Harry V. Jaffa, scholar of Abraham Lincoln’s political philosophy. The Foreward provides background material necessary… More
Lincoln’s Character Assassins
– National Review, January 22, 1990, pp. 34-39.“Who Killed Cock Robin?” A Retrospective on the Bork Nomination and a Reply to “Jaffa Divides the House”
– Seattle University Law Review 13:3 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In an utterance that may have changed the history of the United States, and of the world, Lincoln argued that the grounds upon which one opposed the extension of slavery into the… More
Inventing the Gettysburg Address
– Intercollegiate Review 28:1 (Fall 1992). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Excerpt: Thirty years ago, Garry Wills was a rising star of the Right, a celebrity in the constellation of William F. Buckley, Jr. and National Review. His essay on “The Convenient… More
Defending the Cause of Human Freedom
– The Claremont Institute, April 15, 1994.Excerpt: The Spring 1994 Intercollegiate Review featured a section entitled “Not In Memoriam, But in Affirmation: M. E. Bradford.” I welcome this, or any tribute, to my departed… More
The Speech That Changed the World
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The Speech That Changed the World." Claremont Review of Books, February 6, 2009.Excerpt: Of all Lincoln’s speeches, whether greater or lesser, the only one that can be said truly to have changed the course of history, was delivered to the Republican State… More
Strauss at 100
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, January 13, 2015. In Kenneth L. Deutsch and John A. Murley, Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).Excerpt: It is almost routine in the scholarship of greatness, whether philosophic or political, to discover fathomless complexity in its subjects. Certainly this has been true about… More
Storm Over the Constitution
– Lanham: Lexington Books, 1999.Summary from the Publisher: Written by one of America’s foremost political and legal theorists, Storm Over the Constitution examines the arguments of some of the leading proponents of… More
The Virtue of Practical Wisdom
– Thomas, Clarence. "The Virtue of Practical Wisdom." Claremont Review of Books, February 9, 1999. Excerpt: We gather here tonight in memory of a great man, a great president whose noble words and selfless deeds enabled this great nation to fulfill its promises of equality and liberty… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. With a new foreword by Allen C. Guelzo. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.Summary from the Publisher: A New Birth of Freedom is the culmination of over a half a century of study and reflection by one of America’s foremost scholars of American politics,… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2000.Excerpt: More than 40 years ago, Harry V. Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided, his now-classic interpretation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. In the preface to that book, Jaffa… More
Philosophy, History, and Jaffa’s Universe
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: I believe that Harry V. Jaffa’s A New Birth of Freedom is the book (or nearly the book) that Leo Strauss would have written had his principal concern been the crisis of… More
My Country, ’Tis of Thee: Jaffa’s Defense of the Noble, the Holy, and the Just
– Steve Sorenson, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: “It is baffling to reflect that what men call honor does not correspond always to Christian ethics” (Churchill, 1961, pp. 286-87). Jaffa used this expression of… More
Jaffa’s Lincolnian Defense of the Founding
– Thomas G. West, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: In A New Birth of Freedom, Harry Jaffa presents a powerful defense of the political theory of the American founding. He does it in grand style. Formally, his topic is Lincoln and… More
The False Prophets of American Conservatism
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, June 11, 2014. In Kenneth L. Grasso and Robert P. Hunt, eds., A Moral Enterprise: Politics, Reason, and the Human Good (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2002.)Excerpt: While the crisis of today does not have the immediacy of the crisis over slavery, its underlying character is the same. It is commonplace today to compare the issue of abortion to… More
Abraham Lincoln and the Universal Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
– In Scott Douglas Gerber, ed., The Declaration Of Independence: Origins and Impact (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002).The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Harry V. Jaffa
– Audio interview, Liberty Fund, 2003.Summary: Jaffa talks about his work on American constitutional theory and history including the nature of the American Republic and the impact of Abraham Lincoln on constitutional matters.
Our Embattled Constitution
– Video, Hillsdale College, September 15, 2003.Harry V. Jaffa discusses Lincoln and his Lincoln scholarship in this 2003 speech at Hillsdale College.
Wages of Sin
– Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2004.Excerpt: Among the young scholars in the 1950s who challenged the prevailing historical canon on slavery, no less than Fogel, was one he never mentions. Before the publication of Crisis of… More
The American Founding as the Best Regime
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The American Founding as the Best Regime." Claremont Review of Books, July 4, 2007.Excerpt: The Preamble of the Constitution crowns its enumeration of the ends of the Constitution by declaring its purpose to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our… More
Dred Scott Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 31:1 (Winter 2008).Jaffa’s New Birth: Harry Jaffa at Ninety
– Michael Zuckert, Review of Politics Vol. 71, No. 02 (Spring 2009), pp 207-223.Excerpt: With the publication of Harry Jaffa’s New Birth of Freedom, it is possible to see the overall trajectory of his thinking and to come to some assessment of it. New Birth… More
Lincoln with Harry Jaffa on Uncommon Knowledge
– Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover Institution, July 22, 2009.Summary: In a year that marks the two hundredth year since the birth of Lincoln, and the fiftieth year since the publication of his own Crisis of the House Divided, Harry Jaffa discusses… More
Lincoln in Peoria
– Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2009.Excerpt: A friendly critic has recently characterized my life’s work as dedicated to the moral vision of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria. Of course, as a faithful student of Leo… More
Thoreau and Lincoln
– From A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, ed. Jack Turner (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats
– The Claremont Institute, June 9, 2014.Excerpt: In the fall of 1964, I was on the speech-writing staff of the Goldwater campaign. In September and October I went on a number of forays to college campuses, where I debated… More
Saving President Lincoln
– Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard, January 26, 2015.Excerpt: Ten years later Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. It was not only his best book (he wrote several very,… More
The Emancipation Proclamation
– In Robert A. Godwin, ed., 100 Years of Emancipation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Excerpt: Both in the pre-inaugural period, and in the opening stages of the conflict, the danger of disunion, now the paramount danger, did not come from the forces of slavery alone. It… More
Making Sense of the American Founding
– "Making Sense of the American Founding" (Interview with Thomas G. West by Chris Buskirk and Seth Leibsohn), American Greatness, October 8, 2017Hillsdale College professor Thomas West discusses Harry Jaffa and Jaffa’s interpretation of the American founding in this wide ranging interview.
Essays
Expediency and Morality in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The Anchor Review 2 (1957).Slavery — A Battle Revisited
– New Leader 41:30 (August 18-25, 1958). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Created Equal: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 by Paul Angle.
“Value Consensus” in Democracy: The Issue in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 745-753. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
–Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 50th Anniversary Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
This edition includes a new introduction by the author to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the original 1959 publication.
Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the House Divided is the standard historiography of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Harry Jaffa provides the definitive analysis of the political… More
In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859
– Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959).Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859: The Great Debate Continued
– In Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds., In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Source of American Caesarism: Review of Harry V. Jaffa
– Willmoore Kendall, National Review, November 7, 1959.Excerpt: The idea of natural right is not so easily reducible to the equality clause, and there are better ways of demonstrating the possibility of self-government than imposing one’s… More
Lincoln and Douglas
– Allen Nevins, New Leader 43:20 (May 1960).Review of Crisis of the House Divided.
Reply to Allan Nevins’ review of Crisis of the House Divided
– New Leader (June 20, 1960).Review: The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen
– The Journal of Southern History 28:2 (May 1962), pp. 251-253. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review: Patriotism and Morality
– Chicago Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Summer/Autumn, 1962), pp. 136-142. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Review of Congressman Abraham Lincoln by Donald W. Riddle.
On the Nature of Civil and Religious Liberty: Reflections on the Centennial of the Gettysburg Address
– In Melvin Laird, ed., The Conservative Papers (New York: Doubleday, 1964). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics
– New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.Summary from the Publisher: This is the first of four books by Harry V. Jaffa reprinted by the Claremont Institute in honor of his 80th birthday. This book was originally published by… More
Reconstruction, Old and New
– National Review, April 20, 1965.Review of The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 by Kenneth M. Stampp
Lincoln and the Cause of Freedom
– National Review, September 21, 1965, pp. 827-829. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Contra Herndon
– National Review, March 30, 1973, p. 376.Review of Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish by David Elton Trueblood.
Portrait of a Patriot
– National Review, May 25, 1973. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen.
Partly Federal, Partly National: On the Political Theory of the American Civil War
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed. A Nation of States (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1974). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Debate: “Time on the Cross”
– National Review, March 28, 1975.Review of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman.
Equality as a Conservative Principle
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Kendall & Carey: The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition." Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 8 (1975): 471.Excerpt: That Conservatism should search for its meaning implies of course that Conservatism does not have the meaning for which it is searching. This might appear paradoxical, since a… More
The Heresy of Equality: Bradford Replies to Jaffa
– M. E. Bradford, Modern Age (Winter 1976).Excerpt: This essay is a direct response to Harry Jaffa’s “Equality as a Conservative Principle,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, VI11 (June, 1975), pp. 471-505, which is itself a… More
Equality, Justice, and the American Revolution: In Reply to Bradford’s “The Heresy of Equality”
– Modern Age, Spring 1977. Reprinted in How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1978).Fellows’ Choice
– Hadley Arkes, The Wilson Quarterly 1:3 (Spring 1977), pp. 127-128.Review of Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Inventing the Past
– The St. John's Review 33:1 (Autumn 1981).“In Defense of Political Philosophy” Defended: A Rejoinder to Walter Berns
– Modern Age 27:3 (Summer/Fall 1983). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Harry V. Jaffa and American History by Herman Belz
– Herman Belz, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 1984.Excerpt: One of the most important contributions to American history and political science in the past generation is the work of a political philosopher who, in a significant sense, is an… More
Bradford and Jaffa: Once More on Lincoln
– Harry V. Jaffa and Melvin E. Bradford, American Spectator, June 1985.Excerpt: Two eminent Lincoln scholars disagree on the legacy of Father Abraham.
On Jaffa, Lincoln, Marshall, and Original Intent
– Lewis E. Lehrman, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Foreword introduces the article to follow written by Harry V. Jaffa, scholar of Abraham Lincoln’s political philosophy. The Foreward provides background material necessary… More
Lincoln’s Character Assassins
– National Review, January 22, 1990, pp. 34-39.“Who Killed Cock Robin?” A Retrospective on the Bork Nomination and a Reply to “Jaffa Divides the House”
– Seattle University Law Review 13:3 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In an utterance that may have changed the history of the United States, and of the world, Lincoln argued that the grounds upon which one opposed the extension of slavery into the… More
Inventing the Gettysburg Address
– Intercollegiate Review 28:1 (Fall 1992). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Excerpt: Thirty years ago, Garry Wills was a rising star of the Right, a celebrity in the constellation of William F. Buckley, Jr. and National Review. His essay on “The Convenient… More
Defending the Cause of Human Freedom
– The Claremont Institute, April 15, 1994.Excerpt: The Spring 1994 Intercollegiate Review featured a section entitled “Not In Memoriam, But in Affirmation: M. E. Bradford.” I welcome this, or any tribute, to my departed… More
The Speech That Changed the World
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The Speech That Changed the World." Claremont Review of Books, February 6, 2009.Excerpt: Of all Lincoln’s speeches, whether greater or lesser, the only one that can be said truly to have changed the course of history, was delivered to the Republican State… More
Strauss at 100
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, January 13, 2015. In Kenneth L. Deutsch and John A. Murley, Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).Excerpt: It is almost routine in the scholarship of greatness, whether philosophic or political, to discover fathomless complexity in its subjects. Certainly this has been true about… More
Storm Over the Constitution
– Lanham: Lexington Books, 1999.Summary from the Publisher: Written by one of America’s foremost political and legal theorists, Storm Over the Constitution examines the arguments of some of the leading proponents of… More
The Virtue of Practical Wisdom
– Thomas, Clarence. "The Virtue of Practical Wisdom." Claremont Review of Books, February 9, 1999. Excerpt: We gather here tonight in memory of a great man, a great president whose noble words and selfless deeds enabled this great nation to fulfill its promises of equality and liberty… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. With a new foreword by Allen C. Guelzo. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.Summary from the Publisher: A New Birth of Freedom is the culmination of over a half a century of study and reflection by one of America’s foremost scholars of American politics,… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2000.Excerpt: More than 40 years ago, Harry V. Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided, his now-classic interpretation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. In the preface to that book, Jaffa… More
Philosophy, History, and Jaffa’s Universe
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: I believe that Harry V. Jaffa’s A New Birth of Freedom is the book (or nearly the book) that Leo Strauss would have written had his principal concern been the crisis of… More
My Country, ’Tis of Thee: Jaffa’s Defense of the Noble, the Holy, and the Just
– Steve Sorenson, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: “It is baffling to reflect that what men call honor does not correspond always to Christian ethics” (Churchill, 1961, pp. 286-87). Jaffa used this expression of… More
Jaffa’s Lincolnian Defense of the Founding
– Thomas G. West, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: In A New Birth of Freedom, Harry Jaffa presents a powerful defense of the political theory of the American founding. He does it in grand style. Formally, his topic is Lincoln and… More
The False Prophets of American Conservatism
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, June 11, 2014. In Kenneth L. Grasso and Robert P. Hunt, eds., A Moral Enterprise: Politics, Reason, and the Human Good (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2002.)Excerpt: While the crisis of today does not have the immediacy of the crisis over slavery, its underlying character is the same. It is commonplace today to compare the issue of abortion to… More
Abraham Lincoln and the Universal Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
– In Scott Douglas Gerber, ed., The Declaration Of Independence: Origins and Impact (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002).The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Harry V. Jaffa
– Audio interview, Liberty Fund, 2003.Summary: Jaffa talks about his work on American constitutional theory and history including the nature of the American Republic and the impact of Abraham Lincoln on constitutional matters.
Our Embattled Constitution
– Video, Hillsdale College, September 15, 2003.Harry V. Jaffa discusses Lincoln and his Lincoln scholarship in this 2003 speech at Hillsdale College.
Wages of Sin
– Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2004.Excerpt: Among the young scholars in the 1950s who challenged the prevailing historical canon on slavery, no less than Fogel, was one he never mentions. Before the publication of Crisis of… More
The American Founding as the Best Regime
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The American Founding as the Best Regime." Claremont Review of Books, July 4, 2007.Excerpt: The Preamble of the Constitution crowns its enumeration of the ends of the Constitution by declaring its purpose to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our… More
Dred Scott Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 31:1 (Winter 2008).Jaffa’s New Birth: Harry Jaffa at Ninety
– Michael Zuckert, Review of Politics Vol. 71, No. 02 (Spring 2009), pp 207-223.Excerpt: With the publication of Harry Jaffa’s New Birth of Freedom, it is possible to see the overall trajectory of his thinking and to come to some assessment of it. New Birth… More
Lincoln with Harry Jaffa on Uncommon Knowledge
– Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover Institution, July 22, 2009.Summary: In a year that marks the two hundredth year since the birth of Lincoln, and the fiftieth year since the publication of his own Crisis of the House Divided, Harry Jaffa discusses… More
Lincoln in Peoria
– Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2009.Excerpt: A friendly critic has recently characterized my life’s work as dedicated to the moral vision of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria. Of course, as a faithful student of Leo… More
Thoreau and Lincoln
– From A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, ed. Jack Turner (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats
– The Claremont Institute, June 9, 2014.Excerpt: In the fall of 1964, I was on the speech-writing staff of the Goldwater campaign. In September and October I went on a number of forays to college campuses, where I debated… More
Saving President Lincoln
– Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard, January 26, 2015.Excerpt: Ten years later Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. It was not only his best book (he wrote several very,… More
The Emancipation Proclamation
– In Robert A. Godwin, ed., 100 Years of Emancipation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Excerpt: Both in the pre-inaugural period, and in the opening stages of the conflict, the danger of disunion, now the paramount danger, did not come from the forces of slavery alone. It… More
Making Sense of the American Founding
– "Making Sense of the American Founding" (Interview with Thomas G. West by Chris Buskirk and Seth Leibsohn), American Greatness, October 8, 2017Hillsdale College professor Thomas West discusses Harry Jaffa and Jaffa’s interpretation of the American founding in this wide ranging interview.
Commentary
Expediency and Morality in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The Anchor Review 2 (1957).Slavery — A Battle Revisited
– New Leader 41:30 (August 18-25, 1958). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Created Equal: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 by Paul Angle.
“Value Consensus” in Democracy: The Issue in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 745-753. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
–Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 50th Anniversary Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
This edition includes a new introduction by the author to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the original 1959 publication.
Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the House Divided is the standard historiography of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Harry Jaffa provides the definitive analysis of the political… More
In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859
– Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959).Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859: The Great Debate Continued
– In Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds., In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Source of American Caesarism: Review of Harry V. Jaffa
– Willmoore Kendall, National Review, November 7, 1959.Excerpt: The idea of natural right is not so easily reducible to the equality clause, and there are better ways of demonstrating the possibility of self-government than imposing one’s… More
Lincoln and Douglas
– Allen Nevins, New Leader 43:20 (May 1960).Review of Crisis of the House Divided.
Reply to Allan Nevins’ review of Crisis of the House Divided
– New Leader (June 20, 1960).Review: The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen
– The Journal of Southern History 28:2 (May 1962), pp. 251-253. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review: Patriotism and Morality
– Chicago Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Summer/Autumn, 1962), pp. 136-142. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Review of Congressman Abraham Lincoln by Donald W. Riddle.
On the Nature of Civil and Religious Liberty: Reflections on the Centennial of the Gettysburg Address
– In Melvin Laird, ed., The Conservative Papers (New York: Doubleday, 1964). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics
– New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.Summary from the Publisher: This is the first of four books by Harry V. Jaffa reprinted by the Claremont Institute in honor of his 80th birthday. This book was originally published by… More
Reconstruction, Old and New
– National Review, April 20, 1965.Review of The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 by Kenneth M. Stampp
Lincoln and the Cause of Freedom
– National Review, September 21, 1965, pp. 827-829. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Contra Herndon
– National Review, March 30, 1973, p. 376.Review of Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish by David Elton Trueblood.
Portrait of a Patriot
– National Review, May 25, 1973. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen.
Partly Federal, Partly National: On the Political Theory of the American Civil War
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed. A Nation of States (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1974). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Debate: “Time on the Cross”
– National Review, March 28, 1975.Review of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman.
Equality as a Conservative Principle
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Kendall & Carey: The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition." Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 8 (1975): 471.Excerpt: That Conservatism should search for its meaning implies of course that Conservatism does not have the meaning for which it is searching. This might appear paradoxical, since a… More
The Heresy of Equality: Bradford Replies to Jaffa
– M. E. Bradford, Modern Age (Winter 1976).Excerpt: This essay is a direct response to Harry Jaffa’s “Equality as a Conservative Principle,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, VI11 (June, 1975), pp. 471-505, which is itself a… More
Equality, Justice, and the American Revolution: In Reply to Bradford’s “The Heresy of Equality”
– Modern Age, Spring 1977. Reprinted in How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1978).Fellows’ Choice
– Hadley Arkes, The Wilson Quarterly 1:3 (Spring 1977), pp. 127-128.Review of Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Inventing the Past
– The St. John's Review 33:1 (Autumn 1981).“In Defense of Political Philosophy” Defended: A Rejoinder to Walter Berns
– Modern Age 27:3 (Summer/Fall 1983). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Harry V. Jaffa and American History by Herman Belz
– Herman Belz, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 1984.Excerpt: One of the most important contributions to American history and political science in the past generation is the work of a political philosopher who, in a significant sense, is an… More
Bradford and Jaffa: Once More on Lincoln
– Harry V. Jaffa and Melvin E. Bradford, American Spectator, June 1985.Excerpt: Two eminent Lincoln scholars disagree on the legacy of Father Abraham.
On Jaffa, Lincoln, Marshall, and Original Intent
– Lewis E. Lehrman, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Foreword introduces the article to follow written by Harry V. Jaffa, scholar of Abraham Lincoln’s political philosophy. The Foreward provides background material necessary… More
Lincoln’s Character Assassins
– National Review, January 22, 1990, pp. 34-39.“Who Killed Cock Robin?” A Retrospective on the Bork Nomination and a Reply to “Jaffa Divides the House”
– Seattle University Law Review 13:3 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In an utterance that may have changed the history of the United States, and of the world, Lincoln argued that the grounds upon which one opposed the extension of slavery into the… More
Inventing the Gettysburg Address
– Intercollegiate Review 28:1 (Fall 1992). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Excerpt: Thirty years ago, Garry Wills was a rising star of the Right, a celebrity in the constellation of William F. Buckley, Jr. and National Review. His essay on “The Convenient… More
Defending the Cause of Human Freedom
– The Claremont Institute, April 15, 1994.Excerpt: The Spring 1994 Intercollegiate Review featured a section entitled “Not In Memoriam, But in Affirmation: M. E. Bradford.” I welcome this, or any tribute, to my departed… More
The Speech That Changed the World
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The Speech That Changed the World." Claremont Review of Books, February 6, 2009.Excerpt: Of all Lincoln’s speeches, whether greater or lesser, the only one that can be said truly to have changed the course of history, was delivered to the Republican State… More
Strauss at 100
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, January 13, 2015. In Kenneth L. Deutsch and John A. Murley, Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).Excerpt: It is almost routine in the scholarship of greatness, whether philosophic or political, to discover fathomless complexity in its subjects. Certainly this has been true about… More
Storm Over the Constitution
– Lanham: Lexington Books, 1999.Summary from the Publisher: Written by one of America’s foremost political and legal theorists, Storm Over the Constitution examines the arguments of some of the leading proponents of… More
The Virtue of Practical Wisdom
– Thomas, Clarence. "The Virtue of Practical Wisdom." Claremont Review of Books, February 9, 1999. Excerpt: We gather here tonight in memory of a great man, a great president whose noble words and selfless deeds enabled this great nation to fulfill its promises of equality and liberty… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. With a new foreword by Allen C. Guelzo. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.Summary from the Publisher: A New Birth of Freedom is the culmination of over a half a century of study and reflection by one of America’s foremost scholars of American politics,… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2000.Excerpt: More than 40 years ago, Harry V. Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided, his now-classic interpretation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. In the preface to that book, Jaffa… More
Philosophy, History, and Jaffa’s Universe
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: I believe that Harry V. Jaffa’s A New Birth of Freedom is the book (or nearly the book) that Leo Strauss would have written had his principal concern been the crisis of… More
My Country, ’Tis of Thee: Jaffa’s Defense of the Noble, the Holy, and the Just
– Steve Sorenson, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: “It is baffling to reflect that what men call honor does not correspond always to Christian ethics” (Churchill, 1961, pp. 286-87). Jaffa used this expression of… More
Jaffa’s Lincolnian Defense of the Founding
– Thomas G. West, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: In A New Birth of Freedom, Harry Jaffa presents a powerful defense of the political theory of the American founding. He does it in grand style. Formally, his topic is Lincoln and… More
The False Prophets of American Conservatism
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, June 11, 2014. In Kenneth L. Grasso and Robert P. Hunt, eds., A Moral Enterprise: Politics, Reason, and the Human Good (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2002.)Excerpt: While the crisis of today does not have the immediacy of the crisis over slavery, its underlying character is the same. It is commonplace today to compare the issue of abortion to… More
Abraham Lincoln and the Universal Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
– In Scott Douglas Gerber, ed., The Declaration Of Independence: Origins and Impact (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002).The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Harry V. Jaffa
– Audio interview, Liberty Fund, 2003.Summary: Jaffa talks about his work on American constitutional theory and history including the nature of the American Republic and the impact of Abraham Lincoln on constitutional matters.
Our Embattled Constitution
– Video, Hillsdale College, September 15, 2003.Harry V. Jaffa discusses Lincoln and his Lincoln scholarship in this 2003 speech at Hillsdale College.
Wages of Sin
– Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2004.Excerpt: Among the young scholars in the 1950s who challenged the prevailing historical canon on slavery, no less than Fogel, was one he never mentions. Before the publication of Crisis of… More
The American Founding as the Best Regime
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The American Founding as the Best Regime." Claremont Review of Books, July 4, 2007.Excerpt: The Preamble of the Constitution crowns its enumeration of the ends of the Constitution by declaring its purpose to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our… More
Dred Scott Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 31:1 (Winter 2008).Jaffa’s New Birth: Harry Jaffa at Ninety
– Michael Zuckert, Review of Politics Vol. 71, No. 02 (Spring 2009), pp 207-223.Excerpt: With the publication of Harry Jaffa’s New Birth of Freedom, it is possible to see the overall trajectory of his thinking and to come to some assessment of it. New Birth… More
Lincoln with Harry Jaffa on Uncommon Knowledge
– Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover Institution, July 22, 2009.Summary: In a year that marks the two hundredth year since the birth of Lincoln, and the fiftieth year since the publication of his own Crisis of the House Divided, Harry Jaffa discusses… More
Lincoln in Peoria
– Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2009.Excerpt: A friendly critic has recently characterized my life’s work as dedicated to the moral vision of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria. Of course, as a faithful student of Leo… More
Thoreau and Lincoln
– From A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, ed. Jack Turner (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats
– The Claremont Institute, June 9, 2014.Excerpt: In the fall of 1964, I was on the speech-writing staff of the Goldwater campaign. In September and October I went on a number of forays to college campuses, where I debated… More
Saving President Lincoln
– Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard, January 26, 2015.Excerpt: Ten years later Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. It was not only his best book (he wrote several very,… More
The Emancipation Proclamation
– In Robert A. Godwin, ed., 100 Years of Emancipation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Excerpt: Both in the pre-inaugural period, and in the opening stages of the conflict, the danger of disunion, now the paramount danger, did not come from the forces of slavery alone. It… More
Making Sense of the American Founding
– "Making Sense of the American Founding" (Interview with Thomas G. West by Chris Buskirk and Seth Leibsohn), American Greatness, October 8, 2017Hillsdale College professor Thomas West discusses Harry Jaffa and Jaffa’s interpretation of the American founding in this wide ranging interview.
Multimedia
Expediency and Morality in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The Anchor Review 2 (1957).Slavery — A Battle Revisited
– New Leader 41:30 (August 18-25, 1958). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Created Equal: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 by Paul Angle.
“Value Consensus” in Democracy: The Issue in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 745-753. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
–Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 50th Anniversary Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
This edition includes a new introduction by the author to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the original 1959 publication.
Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the House Divided is the standard historiography of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Harry Jaffa provides the definitive analysis of the political… More
In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859
– Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959).Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859: The Great Debate Continued
– In Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds., In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Source of American Caesarism: Review of Harry V. Jaffa
– Willmoore Kendall, National Review, November 7, 1959.Excerpt: The idea of natural right is not so easily reducible to the equality clause, and there are better ways of demonstrating the possibility of self-government than imposing one’s… More
Lincoln and Douglas
– Allen Nevins, New Leader 43:20 (May 1960).Review of Crisis of the House Divided.
Reply to Allan Nevins’ review of Crisis of the House Divided
– New Leader (June 20, 1960).Review: The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen
– The Journal of Southern History 28:2 (May 1962), pp. 251-253. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review: Patriotism and Morality
– Chicago Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Summer/Autumn, 1962), pp. 136-142. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Review of Congressman Abraham Lincoln by Donald W. Riddle.
On the Nature of Civil and Religious Liberty: Reflections on the Centennial of the Gettysburg Address
– In Melvin Laird, ed., The Conservative Papers (New York: Doubleday, 1964). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics
– New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.Summary from the Publisher: This is the first of four books by Harry V. Jaffa reprinted by the Claremont Institute in honor of his 80th birthday. This book was originally published by… More
Reconstruction, Old and New
– National Review, April 20, 1965.Review of The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 by Kenneth M. Stampp
Lincoln and the Cause of Freedom
– National Review, September 21, 1965, pp. 827-829. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Contra Herndon
– National Review, March 30, 1973, p. 376.Review of Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish by David Elton Trueblood.
Portrait of a Patriot
– National Review, May 25, 1973. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen.
Partly Federal, Partly National: On the Political Theory of the American Civil War
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed. A Nation of States (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1974). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Debate: “Time on the Cross”
– National Review, March 28, 1975.Review of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman.
Equality as a Conservative Principle
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Kendall & Carey: The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition." Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 8 (1975): 471.Excerpt: That Conservatism should search for its meaning implies of course that Conservatism does not have the meaning for which it is searching. This might appear paradoxical, since a… More
The Heresy of Equality: Bradford Replies to Jaffa
– M. E. Bradford, Modern Age (Winter 1976).Excerpt: This essay is a direct response to Harry Jaffa’s “Equality as a Conservative Principle,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, VI11 (June, 1975), pp. 471-505, which is itself a… More
Equality, Justice, and the American Revolution: In Reply to Bradford’s “The Heresy of Equality”
– Modern Age, Spring 1977. Reprinted in How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1978).Fellows’ Choice
– Hadley Arkes, The Wilson Quarterly 1:3 (Spring 1977), pp. 127-128.Review of Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Inventing the Past
– The St. John's Review 33:1 (Autumn 1981).“In Defense of Political Philosophy” Defended: A Rejoinder to Walter Berns
– Modern Age 27:3 (Summer/Fall 1983). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Harry V. Jaffa and American History by Herman Belz
– Herman Belz, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 1984.Excerpt: One of the most important contributions to American history and political science in the past generation is the work of a political philosopher who, in a significant sense, is an… More
Bradford and Jaffa: Once More on Lincoln
– Harry V. Jaffa and Melvin E. Bradford, American Spectator, June 1985.Excerpt: Two eminent Lincoln scholars disagree on the legacy of Father Abraham.
On Jaffa, Lincoln, Marshall, and Original Intent
– Lewis E. Lehrman, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Foreword introduces the article to follow written by Harry V. Jaffa, scholar of Abraham Lincoln’s political philosophy. The Foreward provides background material necessary… More
Lincoln’s Character Assassins
– National Review, January 22, 1990, pp. 34-39.“Who Killed Cock Robin?” A Retrospective on the Bork Nomination and a Reply to “Jaffa Divides the House”
– Seattle University Law Review 13:3 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In an utterance that may have changed the history of the United States, and of the world, Lincoln argued that the grounds upon which one opposed the extension of slavery into the… More
Inventing the Gettysburg Address
– Intercollegiate Review 28:1 (Fall 1992). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Excerpt: Thirty years ago, Garry Wills was a rising star of the Right, a celebrity in the constellation of William F. Buckley, Jr. and National Review. His essay on “The Convenient… More
Defending the Cause of Human Freedom
– The Claremont Institute, April 15, 1994.Excerpt: The Spring 1994 Intercollegiate Review featured a section entitled “Not In Memoriam, But in Affirmation: M. E. Bradford.” I welcome this, or any tribute, to my departed… More
The Speech That Changed the World
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The Speech That Changed the World." Claremont Review of Books, February 6, 2009.Excerpt: Of all Lincoln’s speeches, whether greater or lesser, the only one that can be said truly to have changed the course of history, was delivered to the Republican State… More
Strauss at 100
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, January 13, 2015. In Kenneth L. Deutsch and John A. Murley, Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).Excerpt: It is almost routine in the scholarship of greatness, whether philosophic or political, to discover fathomless complexity in its subjects. Certainly this has been true about… More
Storm Over the Constitution
– Lanham: Lexington Books, 1999.Summary from the Publisher: Written by one of America’s foremost political and legal theorists, Storm Over the Constitution examines the arguments of some of the leading proponents of… More
The Virtue of Practical Wisdom
– Thomas, Clarence. "The Virtue of Practical Wisdom." Claremont Review of Books, February 9, 1999. Excerpt: We gather here tonight in memory of a great man, a great president whose noble words and selfless deeds enabled this great nation to fulfill its promises of equality and liberty… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. With a new foreword by Allen C. Guelzo. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.Summary from the Publisher: A New Birth of Freedom is the culmination of over a half a century of study and reflection by one of America’s foremost scholars of American politics,… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2000.Excerpt: More than 40 years ago, Harry V. Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided, his now-classic interpretation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. In the preface to that book, Jaffa… More
Philosophy, History, and Jaffa’s Universe
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: I believe that Harry V. Jaffa’s A New Birth of Freedom is the book (or nearly the book) that Leo Strauss would have written had his principal concern been the crisis of… More
My Country, ’Tis of Thee: Jaffa’s Defense of the Noble, the Holy, and the Just
– Steve Sorenson, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: “It is baffling to reflect that what men call honor does not correspond always to Christian ethics” (Churchill, 1961, pp. 286-87). Jaffa used this expression of… More
Jaffa’s Lincolnian Defense of the Founding
– Thomas G. West, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: In A New Birth of Freedom, Harry Jaffa presents a powerful defense of the political theory of the American founding. He does it in grand style. Formally, his topic is Lincoln and… More
The False Prophets of American Conservatism
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, June 11, 2014. In Kenneth L. Grasso and Robert P. Hunt, eds., A Moral Enterprise: Politics, Reason, and the Human Good (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2002.)Excerpt: While the crisis of today does not have the immediacy of the crisis over slavery, its underlying character is the same. It is commonplace today to compare the issue of abortion to… More
Abraham Lincoln and the Universal Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
– In Scott Douglas Gerber, ed., The Declaration Of Independence: Origins and Impact (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002).The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Harry V. Jaffa
– Audio interview, Liberty Fund, 2003.Summary: Jaffa talks about his work on American constitutional theory and history including the nature of the American Republic and the impact of Abraham Lincoln on constitutional matters.
Our Embattled Constitution
– Video, Hillsdale College, September 15, 2003.Harry V. Jaffa discusses Lincoln and his Lincoln scholarship in this 2003 speech at Hillsdale College.
Wages of Sin
– Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2004.Excerpt: Among the young scholars in the 1950s who challenged the prevailing historical canon on slavery, no less than Fogel, was one he never mentions. Before the publication of Crisis of… More
The American Founding as the Best Regime
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The American Founding as the Best Regime." Claremont Review of Books, July 4, 2007.Excerpt: The Preamble of the Constitution crowns its enumeration of the ends of the Constitution by declaring its purpose to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our… More
Dred Scott Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 31:1 (Winter 2008).Jaffa’s New Birth: Harry Jaffa at Ninety
– Michael Zuckert, Review of Politics Vol. 71, No. 02 (Spring 2009), pp 207-223.Excerpt: With the publication of Harry Jaffa’s New Birth of Freedom, it is possible to see the overall trajectory of his thinking and to come to some assessment of it. New Birth… More
Lincoln with Harry Jaffa on Uncommon Knowledge
– Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover Institution, July 22, 2009.Summary: In a year that marks the two hundredth year since the birth of Lincoln, and the fiftieth year since the publication of his own Crisis of the House Divided, Harry Jaffa discusses… More
Lincoln in Peoria
– Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2009.Excerpt: A friendly critic has recently characterized my life’s work as dedicated to the moral vision of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria. Of course, as a faithful student of Leo… More
Thoreau and Lincoln
– From A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, ed. Jack Turner (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats
– The Claremont Institute, June 9, 2014.Excerpt: In the fall of 1964, I was on the speech-writing staff of the Goldwater campaign. In September and October I went on a number of forays to college campuses, where I debated… More
Saving President Lincoln
– Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard, January 26, 2015.Excerpt: Ten years later Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. It was not only his best book (he wrote several very,… More
The Emancipation Proclamation
– In Robert A. Godwin, ed., 100 Years of Emancipation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Excerpt: Both in the pre-inaugural period, and in the opening stages of the conflict, the danger of disunion, now the paramount danger, did not come from the forces of slavery alone. It… More
Making Sense of the American Founding
– "Making Sense of the American Founding" (Interview with Thomas G. West by Chris Buskirk and Seth Leibsohn), American Greatness, October 8, 2017Hillsdale College professor Thomas West discusses Harry Jaffa and Jaffa’s interpretation of the American founding in this wide ranging interview.
Teaching
Expediency and Morality in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The Anchor Review 2 (1957).Slavery — A Battle Revisited
– New Leader 41:30 (August 18-25, 1958). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Created Equal: The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858 by Paul Angle.
“Value Consensus” in Democracy: The Issue in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
– The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 745-753. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
–Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. 50th Anniversary Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
This edition includes a new introduction by the author to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the original 1959 publication.
Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the House Divided is the standard historiography of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Harry Jaffa provides the definitive analysis of the political… More
In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859
– Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959).Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859: The Great Debate Continued
– In Harry V. Jaffa and Robert W. Johannsen, eds., In the Name of the People: Speeches and Writings of Lincoln and Douglas in the Ohio Campaign of 1859 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Source of American Caesarism: Review of Harry V. Jaffa
– Willmoore Kendall, National Review, November 7, 1959.Excerpt: The idea of natural right is not so easily reducible to the equality clause, and there are better ways of demonstrating the possibility of self-government than imposing one’s… More
Lincoln and Douglas
– Allen Nevins, New Leader 43:20 (May 1960).Review of Crisis of the House Divided.
Reply to Allan Nevins’ review of Crisis of the House Divided
– New Leader (June 20, 1960).Review: The Letters of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen
– The Journal of Southern History 28:2 (May 1962), pp. 251-253. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review: Patriotism and Morality
– Chicago Review, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Summer/Autumn, 1962), pp. 136-142. Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Review of Congressman Abraham Lincoln by Donald W. Riddle.
On the Nature of Civil and Religious Liberty: Reflections on the Centennial of the Gettysburg Address
– In Melvin Laird, ed., The Conservative Papers (New York: Doubleday, 1964). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics
– New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.Summary from the Publisher: This is the first of four books by Harry V. Jaffa reprinted by the Claremont Institute in honor of his 80th birthday. This book was originally published by… More
Reconstruction, Old and New
– National Review, April 20, 1965.Review of The Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877 by Kenneth M. Stampp
Lincoln and the Cause of Freedom
– National Review, September 21, 1965, pp. 827-829. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Contra Herndon
– National Review, March 30, 1973, p. 376.Review of Abraham Lincoln: Theologian of American Anguish by David Elton Trueblood.
Portrait of a Patriot
– National Review, May 25, 1973. Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Review of Stephen A. Douglas by Robert W. Johannsen.
Partly Federal, Partly National: On the Political Theory of the American Civil War
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed. A Nation of States (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1974). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).Debate: “Time on the Cross”
– National Review, March 28, 1975.Review of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman.
Equality as a Conservative Principle
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Kendall & Carey: The Basic Symbols of the American Political Tradition." Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 8 (1975): 471.Excerpt: That Conservatism should search for its meaning implies of course that Conservatism does not have the meaning for which it is searching. This might appear paradoxical, since a… More
The Heresy of Equality: Bradford Replies to Jaffa
– M. E. Bradford, Modern Age (Winter 1976).Excerpt: This essay is a direct response to Harry Jaffa’s “Equality as a Conservative Principle,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, VI11 (June, 1975), pp. 471-505, which is itself a… More
Equality, Justice, and the American Revolution: In Reply to Bradford’s “The Heresy of Equality”
– Modern Age, Spring 1977. Reprinted in How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1978).Fellows’ Choice
– Hadley Arkes, The Wilson Quarterly 1:3 (Spring 1977), pp. 127-128.Review of Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.
Inventing the Past
– The St. John's Review 33:1 (Autumn 1981).“In Defense of Political Philosophy” Defended: A Rejoinder to Walter Berns
– Modern Age 27:3 (Summer/Fall 1983). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Harry V. Jaffa and American History by Herman Belz
– Herman Belz, Claremont Review of Books, Summer 1984.Excerpt: One of the most important contributions to American history and political science in the past generation is the work of a political philosopher who, in a significant sense, is an… More
Bradford and Jaffa: Once More on Lincoln
– Harry V. Jaffa and Melvin E. Bradford, American Spectator, June 1985.Excerpt: Two eminent Lincoln scholars disagree on the legacy of Father Abraham.
On Jaffa, Lincoln, Marshall, and Original Intent
– Lewis E. Lehrman, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Foreword introduces the article to follow written by Harry V. Jaffa, scholar of Abraham Lincoln’s political philosophy. The Foreward provides background material necessary… More
Lincoln’s Character Assassins
– National Review, January 22, 1990, pp. 34-39.“Who Killed Cock Robin?” A Retrospective on the Bork Nomination and a Reply to “Jaffa Divides the House”
– Seattle University Law Review 13:3 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In an utterance that may have changed the history of the United States, and of the world, Lincoln argued that the grounds upon which one opposed the extension of slavery into the… More
Inventing the Gettysburg Address
– Intercollegiate Review 28:1 (Fall 1992). Reprinted in American Conservatism and the American Founding (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984).Excerpt: Thirty years ago, Garry Wills was a rising star of the Right, a celebrity in the constellation of William F. Buckley, Jr. and National Review. His essay on “The Convenient… More
Defending the Cause of Human Freedom
– The Claremont Institute, April 15, 1994.Excerpt: The Spring 1994 Intercollegiate Review featured a section entitled “Not In Memoriam, But in Affirmation: M. E. Bradford.” I welcome this, or any tribute, to my departed… More
The Speech That Changed the World
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The Speech That Changed the World." Claremont Review of Books, February 6, 2009.Excerpt: Of all Lincoln’s speeches, whether greater or lesser, the only one that can be said truly to have changed the course of history, was delivered to the Republican State… More
Strauss at 100
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, January 13, 2015. In Kenneth L. Deutsch and John A. Murley, Leo Strauss, the Straussians, and the American Regime (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).Excerpt: It is almost routine in the scholarship of greatness, whether philosophic or political, to discover fathomless complexity in its subjects. Certainly this has been true about… More
Storm Over the Constitution
– Lanham: Lexington Books, 1999.Summary from the Publisher: Written by one of America’s foremost political and legal theorists, Storm Over the Constitution examines the arguments of some of the leading proponents of… More
The Virtue of Practical Wisdom
– Thomas, Clarence. "The Virtue of Practical Wisdom." Claremont Review of Books, February 9, 1999. Excerpt: We gather here tonight in memory of a great man, a great president whose noble words and selfless deeds enabled this great nation to fulfill its promises of equality and liberty… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War. With a new foreword by Allen C. Guelzo. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2018.Summary from the Publisher: A New Birth of Freedom is the culmination of over a half a century of study and reflection by one of America’s foremost scholars of American politics,… More
A New Birth of Freedom
– Charles R. Kesler, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2000.Excerpt: More than 40 years ago, Harry V. Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided, his now-classic interpretation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. In the preface to that book, Jaffa… More
Philosophy, History, and Jaffa’s Universe
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: I believe that Harry V. Jaffa’s A New Birth of Freedom is the book (or nearly the book) that Leo Strauss would have written had his principal concern been the crisis of… More
My Country, ’Tis of Thee: Jaffa’s Defense of the Noble, the Holy, and the Just
– Steve Sorenson, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: “It is baffling to reflect that what men call honor does not correspond always to Christian ethics” (Churchill, 1961, pp. 286-87). Jaffa used this expression of… More
Jaffa’s Lincolnian Defense of the Founding
– Thomas G. West, Interpretation, Spring 2001.Excerpt: In A New Birth of Freedom, Harry Jaffa presents a powerful defense of the political theory of the American founding. He does it in grand style. Formally, his topic is Lincoln and… More
The False Prophets of American Conservatism
– Reprinted by The Claremont Institute, June 11, 2014. In Kenneth L. Grasso and Robert P. Hunt, eds., A Moral Enterprise: Politics, Reason, and the Human Good (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2002.)Excerpt: While the crisis of today does not have the immediacy of the crisis over slavery, its underlying character is the same. It is commonplace today to compare the issue of abortion to… More
Abraham Lincoln and the Universal Meaning of the Declaration of Independence
– In Scott Douglas Gerber, ed., The Declaration Of Independence: Origins and Impact (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2002).The Intellectual Portrait Series: A Conversation with Harry V. Jaffa
– Audio interview, Liberty Fund, 2003.Summary: Jaffa talks about his work on American constitutional theory and history including the nature of the American Republic and the impact of Abraham Lincoln on constitutional matters.
Our Embattled Constitution
– Video, Hillsdale College, September 15, 2003.Harry V. Jaffa discusses Lincoln and his Lincoln scholarship in this 2003 speech at Hillsdale College.
Wages of Sin
– Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2004.Excerpt: Among the young scholars in the 1950s who challenged the prevailing historical canon on slavery, no less than Fogel, was one he never mentions. Before the publication of Crisis of… More
The American Founding as the Best Regime
– Jaffa, Harry V. "The American Founding as the Best Regime." Claremont Review of Books, July 4, 2007.Excerpt: The Preamble of the Constitution crowns its enumeration of the ends of the Constitution by declaring its purpose to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our… More
Dred Scott Revisited
– Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 31:1 (Winter 2008).Jaffa’s New Birth: Harry Jaffa at Ninety
– Michael Zuckert, Review of Politics Vol. 71, No. 02 (Spring 2009), pp 207-223.Excerpt: With the publication of Harry Jaffa’s New Birth of Freedom, it is possible to see the overall trajectory of his thinking and to come to some assessment of it. New Birth… More
Lincoln with Harry Jaffa on Uncommon Knowledge
– Uncommon Knowledge, Hoover Institution, July 22, 2009.Summary: In a year that marks the two hundredth year since the birth of Lincoln, and the fiftieth year since the publication of his own Crisis of the House Divided, Harry Jaffa discusses… More
Lincoln in Peoria
– Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2009.Excerpt: A friendly critic has recently characterized my life’s work as dedicated to the moral vision of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria. Of course, as a faithful student of Leo… More
Thoreau and Lincoln
– From A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, ed. Jack Turner (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010). Reprinted in The Conditions of Freedom (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975).The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats
– The Claremont Institute, June 9, 2014.Excerpt: In the fall of 1964, I was on the speech-writing staff of the Goldwater campaign. In September and October I went on a number of forays to college campuses, where I debated… More
Saving President Lincoln
– Andrew Ferguson, The Weekly Standard, January 26, 2015.Excerpt: Ten years later Jaffa published Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. It was not only his best book (he wrote several very,… More
The Emancipation Proclamation
– In Robert A. Godwin, ed., 100 Years of Emancipation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).Excerpt: Both in the pre-inaugural period, and in the opening stages of the conflict, the danger of disunion, now the paramount danger, did not come from the forces of slavery alone. It… More
Making Sense of the American Founding
– "Making Sense of the American Founding" (Interview with Thomas G. West by Chris Buskirk and Seth Leibsohn), American Greatness, October 8, 2017Hillsdale College professor Thomas West discusses Harry Jaffa and Jaffa’s interpretation of the American founding in this wide ranging interview.