Books
War Powers Under the Pact; Scope of Presidential Authority in Event of Attack Discussed
– New York Times, April 4, 1949.Excerpt: In James Reston’s dispatch in THE TIMES of March 26 it is shown that the question of who initiates armed action under the Constitution was debated in the earliest years of… More
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).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
Agrarian Virtue and Republican Freedom: An Historical Perspective
– In Goals and Values in Agricultural Policy (Des Moines: Iowa State University, 1961). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).The Case for a Stronger National Government
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., A Nation of States: Essays on the American Federal System (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1961).The U.S. and Revolution: An Occasional Paper on the Free Society
– (Santa Barbara, CA: Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, 1961).Conflicts within the Idea of the Liberal Tradition
– Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Apr., 1963), pp. 274-278.The Nature and Origin of the American Party System
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., Political Parties U.S.A. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 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
Weathermen and Fort Sumter
– National Review, December 20, 1970.The Conditions of Freedom: Essays in Political Philosophy
– Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the second in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
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.
How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration
– Jaffa, Harry V. How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Celebration. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1978.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the third in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
Jaffa’s Thinking on the American Revolution
– David L. Schaefer, The Review of Politics,Vol. 41, No. 3 (July 1979), pp. 437-442.“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).American Conservatism and the American Founding
– Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984.Summary from the Publisher: This book is the fourth in a series (including Equality and Liberty, The Conditions of Freedom, and How to Think About the American Revolution) of reprinted… More
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
Patriotism, American Style
– National Review, November 29, 1985, pp. 34-37.Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom." Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 15, no. 1 (1987).Jaffa’s article provides a comprehensive examination of the philosophical foundations of political freedom, advocating that the American founding exemplifies the harmonious… More
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
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Jaffa
– Bruce Ledewitz, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s article “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?” The Article… More
Professor Harry V. Jaffa Divides the House: A Respectful Protest and a Defense Brief
– Robert L. Stone, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor’ Jaffa’s article, “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?,” and book, The… More
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Ledewitz
– Seattle University Law Review 11:2 (1988). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In our Spring 1987 issue, Professor Jaffa authored an essay in which he posited that the fundamental principles of equality and other tenets of natural law expressed in the… More
Seven Answers for Professor Anastaplo
– Seattle University Law Review 13:2 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: Professor Jaffa responds to seven questions from Professor Anastaplo.
“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
Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy." Claremont Review of Books, October 7, 1991. Also found in: Deutsch, Kenneth L., and Walter Nicgorski, eds. Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994.Excerpt: From this perspective, the intention of the American Founding, with its separation of church and state, its guarantee of the free exercise of religion, and of freedom of speech and… More
Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution
– Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994.Summary from the Publisher: Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question is a unique contribution to the debate, begun by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the… More
Professor Jaffa and That Old-Time Religion
– George Anastapalo, in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Excerpt: Mr. Jaffa, even when he is mistaken in the theoretician’s (to be distinguished from the ideologue’s) emphasis that he evidently cannot help but place upon practical… More
Natural Right in the American Founding
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 1996.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
Aristotle and Locke in the American Founding
– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.Excerpt: In his review of A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, in the inaugural issue of the Claremont Review of Books, Charles Kesler writes,… More
Defenders of the Constitution: Calhoun Versus Madison, a Bicentennial Cerebration
– Symposium, "James Madison: Philosopher and Practitioner of Liberal Democracy," Library of Congress, March 16, 2001.Excerpt: In 1987, the Center for Judicial Studies, a Conservative think tank in the precincts of the nation’s capital–a think tank, sometimes referred to as by appointment to… 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
Jaffa versus Mansfield by Thomas G. West
– Thomas G. West, Perspectives on Political Science 31:4 (Fall 2002).Excerpt: Harry Jaffa and Harvey Mansfield are two of the ablest among those whose study of America has been shaped and helped by what they learned from Strauss. Both men are patriots. Both… More
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.
Thomas Aquinas Meets Thomas Jefferson
– Interpretation 33:2 (Spring 2006).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).Too Good to be True? A Reply to Robert Kraynak’s “Moral Order in the Western Tradition: Harry Jaffa’s Grand Synthesis of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria”
– The Review of Politics, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 224-240.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
Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West
– Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the Strauss Divided brings together a collection of Jaffa’s published arguments defending and explaining that judgment, written during the 40 years… More
Harry Jaffa and the Nobility of the American Founding
– Thomas G. West, The Federalist, February 19, 2015.Excerpt: Jaffa’s intellectual point of departure was his encounter with Leo Strauss. I believe that in Jaffa’s mind, that was the most important thing that ever happened to him, with… More
The Declaration in a House Divided
– Video, Jack Miller Center, April 21, 2015.Summary: Interviews with Diana Schaub, James W. Ceaser, and others on the Declaration of Independence.
Natural Right in the American Founding: Harry Jaffa’s Legacy
– Edward J. Erler, paper presented at a Roundtable on the Work and Legacy of Harry V. Jaffa, Claremont Institute, APSA annual meeting, San Francisco, California, September 5, 2015.Excerpt: Harry Jaffa spent nearly his whole career uncovering and articulating the natural right foundations of the American Founding. Leo Strauss, Jaffa’s teacher, wrote in the… More
The Jaffa-Berns Feud Revisited
– Steven F. Hayward, Powerline, September 11, 2015. Remarks from Claremont Institute APSA panel, September 2015.Excerpt: Berns inclined toward a Hobbesian reading of Locke while Jaffa worked out an Aristotelian reading of Locke. Jaffa thought America the best regime, in the classical sense. Though he… More
Full Bloom
– Algis Valiunas, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2015.Excerpt: Harry V. Jaffa, writing in the journal Interpretation, and Charles Kesler, in The American Spectator(both pieces are collected in Essays on The Closing of the American… 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
War Powers Under the Pact; Scope of Presidential Authority in Event of Attack Discussed
– New York Times, April 4, 1949.Excerpt: In James Reston’s dispatch in THE TIMES of March 26 it is shown that the question of who initiates armed action under the Constitution was debated in the earliest years of… More
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).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
Agrarian Virtue and Republican Freedom: An Historical Perspective
– In Goals and Values in Agricultural Policy (Des Moines: Iowa State University, 1961). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).The Case for a Stronger National Government
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., A Nation of States: Essays on the American Federal System (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1961).The U.S. and Revolution: An Occasional Paper on the Free Society
– (Santa Barbara, CA: Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, 1961).Conflicts within the Idea of the Liberal Tradition
– Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Apr., 1963), pp. 274-278.The Nature and Origin of the American Party System
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., Political Parties U.S.A. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 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
Weathermen and Fort Sumter
– National Review, December 20, 1970.The Conditions of Freedom: Essays in Political Philosophy
– Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the second in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
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.
How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration
– Jaffa, Harry V. How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Celebration. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1978.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the third in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
Jaffa’s Thinking on the American Revolution
– David L. Schaefer, The Review of Politics,Vol. 41, No. 3 (July 1979), pp. 437-442.“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).American Conservatism and the American Founding
– Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984.Summary from the Publisher: This book is the fourth in a series (including Equality and Liberty, The Conditions of Freedom, and How to Think About the American Revolution) of reprinted… More
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
Patriotism, American Style
– National Review, November 29, 1985, pp. 34-37.Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom." Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 15, no. 1 (1987).Jaffa’s article provides a comprehensive examination of the philosophical foundations of political freedom, advocating that the American founding exemplifies the harmonious… More
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
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Jaffa
– Bruce Ledewitz, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s article “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?” The Article… More
Professor Harry V. Jaffa Divides the House: A Respectful Protest and a Defense Brief
– Robert L. Stone, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor’ Jaffa’s article, “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?,” and book, The… More
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Ledewitz
– Seattle University Law Review 11:2 (1988). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In our Spring 1987 issue, Professor Jaffa authored an essay in which he posited that the fundamental principles of equality and other tenets of natural law expressed in the… More
Seven Answers for Professor Anastaplo
– Seattle University Law Review 13:2 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: Professor Jaffa responds to seven questions from Professor Anastaplo.
“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
Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy." Claremont Review of Books, October 7, 1991. Also found in: Deutsch, Kenneth L., and Walter Nicgorski, eds. Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994.Excerpt: From this perspective, the intention of the American Founding, with its separation of church and state, its guarantee of the free exercise of religion, and of freedom of speech and… More
Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution
– Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994.Summary from the Publisher: Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question is a unique contribution to the debate, begun by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the… More
Professor Jaffa and That Old-Time Religion
– George Anastapalo, in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Excerpt: Mr. Jaffa, even when he is mistaken in the theoretician’s (to be distinguished from the ideologue’s) emphasis that he evidently cannot help but place upon practical… More
Natural Right in the American Founding
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 1996.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
Aristotle and Locke in the American Founding
– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.Excerpt: In his review of A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, in the inaugural issue of the Claremont Review of Books, Charles Kesler writes,… More
Defenders of the Constitution: Calhoun Versus Madison, a Bicentennial Cerebration
– Symposium, "James Madison: Philosopher and Practitioner of Liberal Democracy," Library of Congress, March 16, 2001.Excerpt: In 1987, the Center for Judicial Studies, a Conservative think tank in the precincts of the nation’s capital–a think tank, sometimes referred to as by appointment to… 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
Jaffa versus Mansfield by Thomas G. West
– Thomas G. West, Perspectives on Political Science 31:4 (Fall 2002).Excerpt: Harry Jaffa and Harvey Mansfield are two of the ablest among those whose study of America has been shaped and helped by what they learned from Strauss. Both men are patriots. Both… More
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.
Thomas Aquinas Meets Thomas Jefferson
– Interpretation 33:2 (Spring 2006).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).Too Good to be True? A Reply to Robert Kraynak’s “Moral Order in the Western Tradition: Harry Jaffa’s Grand Synthesis of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria”
– The Review of Politics, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 224-240.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
Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West
– Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the Strauss Divided brings together a collection of Jaffa’s published arguments defending and explaining that judgment, written during the 40 years… More
Harry Jaffa and the Nobility of the American Founding
– Thomas G. West, The Federalist, February 19, 2015.Excerpt: Jaffa’s intellectual point of departure was his encounter with Leo Strauss. I believe that in Jaffa’s mind, that was the most important thing that ever happened to him, with… More
The Declaration in a House Divided
– Video, Jack Miller Center, April 21, 2015.Summary: Interviews with Diana Schaub, James W. Ceaser, and others on the Declaration of Independence.
Natural Right in the American Founding: Harry Jaffa’s Legacy
– Edward J. Erler, paper presented at a Roundtable on the Work and Legacy of Harry V. Jaffa, Claremont Institute, APSA annual meeting, San Francisco, California, September 5, 2015.Excerpt: Harry Jaffa spent nearly his whole career uncovering and articulating the natural right foundations of the American Founding. Leo Strauss, Jaffa’s teacher, wrote in the… More
The Jaffa-Berns Feud Revisited
– Steven F. Hayward, Powerline, September 11, 2015. Remarks from Claremont Institute APSA panel, September 2015.Excerpt: Berns inclined toward a Hobbesian reading of Locke while Jaffa worked out an Aristotelian reading of Locke. Jaffa thought America the best regime, in the classical sense. Though he… More
Full Bloom
– Algis Valiunas, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2015.Excerpt: Harry V. Jaffa, writing in the journal Interpretation, and Charles Kesler, in The American Spectator(both pieces are collected in Essays on The Closing of the American… 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
War Powers Under the Pact; Scope of Presidential Authority in Event of Attack Discussed
– New York Times, April 4, 1949.Excerpt: In James Reston’s dispatch in THE TIMES of March 26 it is shown that the question of who initiates armed action under the Constitution was debated in the earliest years of… More
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).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
Agrarian Virtue and Republican Freedom: An Historical Perspective
– In Goals and Values in Agricultural Policy (Des Moines: Iowa State University, 1961). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).The Case for a Stronger National Government
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., A Nation of States: Essays on the American Federal System (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1961).The U.S. and Revolution: An Occasional Paper on the Free Society
– (Santa Barbara, CA: Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, 1961).Conflicts within the Idea of the Liberal Tradition
– Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Apr., 1963), pp. 274-278.The Nature and Origin of the American Party System
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., Political Parties U.S.A. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 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
Weathermen and Fort Sumter
– National Review, December 20, 1970.The Conditions of Freedom: Essays in Political Philosophy
– Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the second in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
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.
How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration
– Jaffa, Harry V. How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Celebration. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1978.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the third in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
Jaffa’s Thinking on the American Revolution
– David L. Schaefer, The Review of Politics,Vol. 41, No. 3 (July 1979), pp. 437-442.“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).American Conservatism and the American Founding
– Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984.Summary from the Publisher: This book is the fourth in a series (including Equality and Liberty, The Conditions of Freedom, and How to Think About the American Revolution) of reprinted… More
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
Patriotism, American Style
– National Review, November 29, 1985, pp. 34-37.Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom." Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 15, no. 1 (1987).Jaffa’s article provides a comprehensive examination of the philosophical foundations of political freedom, advocating that the American founding exemplifies the harmonious… More
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
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Jaffa
– Bruce Ledewitz, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s article “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?” The Article… More
Professor Harry V. Jaffa Divides the House: A Respectful Protest and a Defense Brief
– Robert L. Stone, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor’ Jaffa’s article, “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?,” and book, The… More
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Ledewitz
– Seattle University Law Review 11:2 (1988). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In our Spring 1987 issue, Professor Jaffa authored an essay in which he posited that the fundamental principles of equality and other tenets of natural law expressed in the… More
Seven Answers for Professor Anastaplo
– Seattle University Law Review 13:2 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: Professor Jaffa responds to seven questions from Professor Anastaplo.
“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
Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy." Claremont Review of Books, October 7, 1991. Also found in: Deutsch, Kenneth L., and Walter Nicgorski, eds. Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994.Excerpt: From this perspective, the intention of the American Founding, with its separation of church and state, its guarantee of the free exercise of religion, and of freedom of speech and… More
Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution
– Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994.Summary from the Publisher: Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question is a unique contribution to the debate, begun by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the… More
Professor Jaffa and That Old-Time Religion
– George Anastapalo, in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Excerpt: Mr. Jaffa, even when he is mistaken in the theoretician’s (to be distinguished from the ideologue’s) emphasis that he evidently cannot help but place upon practical… More
Natural Right in the American Founding
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 1996.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
Aristotle and Locke in the American Founding
– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.Excerpt: In his review of A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, in the inaugural issue of the Claremont Review of Books, Charles Kesler writes,… More
Defenders of the Constitution: Calhoun Versus Madison, a Bicentennial Cerebration
– Symposium, "James Madison: Philosopher and Practitioner of Liberal Democracy," Library of Congress, March 16, 2001.Excerpt: In 1987, the Center for Judicial Studies, a Conservative think tank in the precincts of the nation’s capital–a think tank, sometimes referred to as by appointment to… 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
Jaffa versus Mansfield by Thomas G. West
– Thomas G. West, Perspectives on Political Science 31:4 (Fall 2002).Excerpt: Harry Jaffa and Harvey Mansfield are two of the ablest among those whose study of America has been shaped and helped by what they learned from Strauss. Both men are patriots. Both… More
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.
Thomas Aquinas Meets Thomas Jefferson
– Interpretation 33:2 (Spring 2006).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).Too Good to be True? A Reply to Robert Kraynak’s “Moral Order in the Western Tradition: Harry Jaffa’s Grand Synthesis of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria”
– The Review of Politics, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 224-240.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
Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West
– Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the Strauss Divided brings together a collection of Jaffa’s published arguments defending and explaining that judgment, written during the 40 years… More
Harry Jaffa and the Nobility of the American Founding
– Thomas G. West, The Federalist, February 19, 2015.Excerpt: Jaffa’s intellectual point of departure was his encounter with Leo Strauss. I believe that in Jaffa’s mind, that was the most important thing that ever happened to him, with… More
The Declaration in a House Divided
– Video, Jack Miller Center, April 21, 2015.Summary: Interviews with Diana Schaub, James W. Ceaser, and others on the Declaration of Independence.
Natural Right in the American Founding: Harry Jaffa’s Legacy
– Edward J. Erler, paper presented at a Roundtable on the Work and Legacy of Harry V. Jaffa, Claremont Institute, APSA annual meeting, San Francisco, California, September 5, 2015.Excerpt: Harry Jaffa spent nearly his whole career uncovering and articulating the natural right foundations of the American Founding. Leo Strauss, Jaffa’s teacher, wrote in the… More
The Jaffa-Berns Feud Revisited
– Steven F. Hayward, Powerline, September 11, 2015. Remarks from Claremont Institute APSA panel, September 2015.Excerpt: Berns inclined toward a Hobbesian reading of Locke while Jaffa worked out an Aristotelian reading of Locke. Jaffa thought America the best regime, in the classical sense. Though he… More
Full Bloom
– Algis Valiunas, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2015.Excerpt: Harry V. Jaffa, writing in the journal Interpretation, and Charles Kesler, in The American Spectator(both pieces are collected in Essays on The Closing of the American… 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
War Powers Under the Pact; Scope of Presidential Authority in Event of Attack Discussed
– New York Times, April 4, 1949.Excerpt: In James Reston’s dispatch in THE TIMES of March 26 it is shown that the question of who initiates armed action under the Constitution was debated in the earliest years of… More
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).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
Agrarian Virtue and Republican Freedom: An Historical Perspective
– In Goals and Values in Agricultural Policy (Des Moines: Iowa State University, 1961). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).The Case for a Stronger National Government
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., A Nation of States: Essays on the American Federal System (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1961).The U.S. and Revolution: An Occasional Paper on the Free Society
– (Santa Barbara, CA: Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, 1961).Conflicts within the Idea of the Liberal Tradition
– Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Apr., 1963), pp. 274-278.The Nature and Origin of the American Party System
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., Political Parties U.S.A. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 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
Weathermen and Fort Sumter
– National Review, December 20, 1970.The Conditions of Freedom: Essays in Political Philosophy
– Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the second in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
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.
How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration
– Jaffa, Harry V. How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Celebration. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1978.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the third in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
Jaffa’s Thinking on the American Revolution
– David L. Schaefer, The Review of Politics,Vol. 41, No. 3 (July 1979), pp. 437-442.“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).American Conservatism and the American Founding
– Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984.Summary from the Publisher: This book is the fourth in a series (including Equality and Liberty, The Conditions of Freedom, and How to Think About the American Revolution) of reprinted… More
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
Patriotism, American Style
– National Review, November 29, 1985, pp. 34-37.Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom." Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 15, no. 1 (1987).Jaffa’s article provides a comprehensive examination of the philosophical foundations of political freedom, advocating that the American founding exemplifies the harmonious… More
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
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Jaffa
– Bruce Ledewitz, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s article “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?” The Article… More
Professor Harry V. Jaffa Divides the House: A Respectful Protest and a Defense Brief
– Robert L. Stone, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor’ Jaffa’s article, “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?,” and book, The… More
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Ledewitz
– Seattle University Law Review 11:2 (1988). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In our Spring 1987 issue, Professor Jaffa authored an essay in which he posited that the fundamental principles of equality and other tenets of natural law expressed in the… More
Seven Answers for Professor Anastaplo
– Seattle University Law Review 13:2 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: Professor Jaffa responds to seven questions from Professor Anastaplo.
“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
Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy." Claremont Review of Books, October 7, 1991. Also found in: Deutsch, Kenneth L., and Walter Nicgorski, eds. Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994.Excerpt: From this perspective, the intention of the American Founding, with its separation of church and state, its guarantee of the free exercise of religion, and of freedom of speech and… More
Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution
– Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994.Summary from the Publisher: Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question is a unique contribution to the debate, begun by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the… More
Professor Jaffa and That Old-Time Religion
– George Anastapalo, in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Excerpt: Mr. Jaffa, even when he is mistaken in the theoretician’s (to be distinguished from the ideologue’s) emphasis that he evidently cannot help but place upon practical… More
Natural Right in the American Founding
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 1996.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
Aristotle and Locke in the American Founding
– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.Excerpt: In his review of A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, in the inaugural issue of the Claremont Review of Books, Charles Kesler writes,… More
Defenders of the Constitution: Calhoun Versus Madison, a Bicentennial Cerebration
– Symposium, "James Madison: Philosopher and Practitioner of Liberal Democracy," Library of Congress, March 16, 2001.Excerpt: In 1987, the Center for Judicial Studies, a Conservative think tank in the precincts of the nation’s capital–a think tank, sometimes referred to as by appointment to… 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
Jaffa versus Mansfield by Thomas G. West
– Thomas G. West, Perspectives on Political Science 31:4 (Fall 2002).Excerpt: Harry Jaffa and Harvey Mansfield are two of the ablest among those whose study of America has been shaped and helped by what they learned from Strauss. Both men are patriots. Both… More
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.
Thomas Aquinas Meets Thomas Jefferson
– Interpretation 33:2 (Spring 2006).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).Too Good to be True? A Reply to Robert Kraynak’s “Moral Order in the Western Tradition: Harry Jaffa’s Grand Synthesis of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria”
– The Review of Politics, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 224-240.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
Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West
– Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the Strauss Divided brings together a collection of Jaffa’s published arguments defending and explaining that judgment, written during the 40 years… More
Harry Jaffa and the Nobility of the American Founding
– Thomas G. West, The Federalist, February 19, 2015.Excerpt: Jaffa’s intellectual point of departure was his encounter with Leo Strauss. I believe that in Jaffa’s mind, that was the most important thing that ever happened to him, with… More
The Declaration in a House Divided
– Video, Jack Miller Center, April 21, 2015.Summary: Interviews with Diana Schaub, James W. Ceaser, and others on the Declaration of Independence.
Natural Right in the American Founding: Harry Jaffa’s Legacy
– Edward J. Erler, paper presented at a Roundtable on the Work and Legacy of Harry V. Jaffa, Claremont Institute, APSA annual meeting, San Francisco, California, September 5, 2015.Excerpt: Harry Jaffa spent nearly his whole career uncovering and articulating the natural right foundations of the American Founding. Leo Strauss, Jaffa’s teacher, wrote in the… More
The Jaffa-Berns Feud Revisited
– Steven F. Hayward, Powerline, September 11, 2015. Remarks from Claremont Institute APSA panel, September 2015.Excerpt: Berns inclined toward a Hobbesian reading of Locke while Jaffa worked out an Aristotelian reading of Locke. Jaffa thought America the best regime, in the classical sense. Though he… More
Full Bloom
– Algis Valiunas, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2015.Excerpt: Harry V. Jaffa, writing in the journal Interpretation, and Charles Kesler, in The American Spectator(both pieces are collected in Essays on The Closing of the American… 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
War Powers Under the Pact; Scope of Presidential Authority in Event of Attack Discussed
– New York Times, April 4, 1949.Excerpt: In James Reston’s dispatch in THE TIMES of March 26 it is shown that the question of who initiates armed action under the Constitution was debated in the earliest years of… More
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).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
Agrarian Virtue and Republican Freedom: An Historical Perspective
– In Goals and Values in Agricultural Policy (Des Moines: Iowa State University, 1961). Reprinted in Equality and Liberty: Theory and Practice in American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965).The Case for a Stronger National Government
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., A Nation of States: Essays on the American Federal System (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1961).The U.S. and Revolution: An Occasional Paper on the Free Society
– (Santa Barbara, CA: Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, 1961).Conflicts within the Idea of the Liberal Tradition
– Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Apr., 1963), pp. 274-278.The Nature and Origin of the American Party System
– In Robert A. Goldwin, ed., Political Parties U.S.A. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 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
Weathermen and Fort Sumter
– National Review, December 20, 1970.The Conditions of Freedom: Essays in Political Philosophy
– Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the second in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
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.
How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration
– Jaffa, Harry V. How to Think About the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Celebration. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1978.Summary from the Publisher: This volume represents the third in a series. In 1999, in commemoration of Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s 80th birthday, the Claremont Institute began to… More
Jaffa’s Thinking on the American Revolution
– David L. Schaefer, The Review of Politics,Vol. 41, No. 3 (July 1979), pp. 437-442.“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).American Conservatism and the American Founding
– Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 1984.Summary from the Publisher: This book is the fourth in a series (including Equality and Liberty, The Conditions of Freedom, and How to Think About the American Revolution) of reprinted… More
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
Patriotism, American Style
– National Review, November 29, 1985, pp. 34-37.Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Equality, Liberty, Wisdom, Morality and Consent in the Idea of Political Freedom." Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 15, no. 1 (1987).Jaffa’s article provides a comprehensive examination of the philosophical foundations of political freedom, advocating that the American founding exemplifies the harmonious… More
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
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Jaffa
– Bruce Ledewitz, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor Harry V. Jaffa’s article “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?” The Article… More
Professor Harry V. Jaffa Divides the House: A Respectful Protest and a Defense Brief
– Robert L. Stone, Seattle University Law Review 10:3 (1987). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: This Article replies to Professor’ Jaffa’s article, “What Were the ‘Original Intentions’ of the Framers of the Constitution of the United States?,” and book, The… More
Judicial Conscience and Natural Rights: A Reply to Professor Ledewitz
– Seattle University Law Review 11:2 (1988). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: In our Spring 1987 issue, Professor Jaffa authored an essay in which he posited that the fundamental principles of equality and other tenets of natural law expressed in the… More
Seven Answers for Professor Anastaplo
– Seattle University Law Review 13:2 (1990). Reprinted in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Abstract: Professor Jaffa responds to seven questions from Professor Anastaplo.
“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
Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy
– Jaffa, Harry V. "Leo Strauss, the Bible, and Political Philosophy." Claremont Review of Books, October 7, 1991. Also found in: Deutsch, Kenneth L., and Walter Nicgorski, eds. Leo Strauss: Political Philosopher and Jewish Thinker. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994.Excerpt: From this perspective, the intention of the American Founding, with its separation of church and state, its guarantee of the free exercise of religion, and of freedom of speech and… More
Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution
– Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994.Summary from the Publisher: Original Intent and the Framers of the Constitution: A Disputed Question is a unique contribution to the debate, begun by Attorney General Edwin Meese in the… More
Professor Jaffa and That Old-Time Religion
– George Anastapalo, in Original Intent & the Framers of the Constitution (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1994).Excerpt: Mr. Jaffa, even when he is mistaken in the theoretician’s (to be distinguished from the ideologue’s) emphasis that he evidently cannot help but place upon practical… More
Natural Right in the American Founding
– Edward J. Erler, Interpretation, Spring 1996.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
Aristotle and Locke in the American Founding
– Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2001.Excerpt: In his review of A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War, in the inaugural issue of the Claremont Review of Books, Charles Kesler writes,… More
Defenders of the Constitution: Calhoun Versus Madison, a Bicentennial Cerebration
– Symposium, "James Madison: Philosopher and Practitioner of Liberal Democracy," Library of Congress, March 16, 2001.Excerpt: In 1987, the Center for Judicial Studies, a Conservative think tank in the precincts of the nation’s capital–a think tank, sometimes referred to as by appointment to… 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
Jaffa versus Mansfield by Thomas G. West
– Thomas G. West, Perspectives on Political Science 31:4 (Fall 2002).Excerpt: Harry Jaffa and Harvey Mansfield are two of the ablest among those whose study of America has been shaped and helped by what they learned from Strauss. Both men are patriots. Both… More
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.
Thomas Aquinas Meets Thomas Jefferson
– Interpretation 33:2 (Spring 2006).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).Too Good to be True? A Reply to Robert Kraynak’s “Moral Order in the Western Tradition: Harry Jaffa’s Grand Synthesis of Athens, Jerusalem, and Peoria”
– The Review of Politics, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 224-240.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
Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West
– Jaffa, Harry V. Crisis of the Strauss Divided: Essays on Leo Strauss and Straussianism, East and West. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012Summary from the Publisher: Crisis of the Strauss Divided brings together a collection of Jaffa’s published arguments defending and explaining that judgment, written during the 40 years… More
Harry Jaffa and the Nobility of the American Founding
– Thomas G. West, The Federalist, February 19, 2015.Excerpt: Jaffa’s intellectual point of departure was his encounter with Leo Strauss. I believe that in Jaffa’s mind, that was the most important thing that ever happened to him, with… More
The Declaration in a House Divided
– Video, Jack Miller Center, April 21, 2015.Summary: Interviews with Diana Schaub, James W. Ceaser, and others on the Declaration of Independence.
Natural Right in the American Founding: Harry Jaffa’s Legacy
– Edward J. Erler, paper presented at a Roundtable on the Work and Legacy of Harry V. Jaffa, Claremont Institute, APSA annual meeting, San Francisco, California, September 5, 2015.Excerpt: Harry Jaffa spent nearly his whole career uncovering and articulating the natural right foundations of the American Founding. Leo Strauss, Jaffa’s teacher, wrote in the… More
The Jaffa-Berns Feud Revisited
– Steven F. Hayward, Powerline, September 11, 2015. Remarks from Claremont Institute APSA panel, September 2015.Excerpt: Berns inclined toward a Hobbesian reading of Locke while Jaffa worked out an Aristotelian reading of Locke. Jaffa thought America the best regime, in the classical sense. Though he… More
Full Bloom
– Algis Valiunas, Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2015.Excerpt: Harry V. Jaffa, writing in the journal Interpretation, and Charles Kesler, in The American Spectator(both pieces are collected in Essays on The Closing of the American… 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.