Tag: Education

Topics

Books

Democracy and the Great Books

– "Democracy and the Great Books," an exchange with Richard Rorty, The New Republic, April 4, 1988.  Also published in French, Commentaire, Summer 1988, pp. 492-6.

The State of Harvard

– "The State of Harvard," review article in The Public Interest, No. 101 (Fall 1990), pp. 113-123.
Excerpt: HARVARD is either the best American university or close to it, and according to Henry Rosovsky, two-thirds of the world’s best universities are American. Rosovsky was dean of… More

Veritas

– "Veritas," The National Endowments: A Critical Symposium, L. Jarvik, H. London, and J. Cooper, eds., Los Angeles: The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 1995.

The National Prospect

– "The National Prospect," a symposium, Commentary Magazine, November 1995, 85-86.
Excerpt: Lack of virtue is dimming our national prospect. This is a simpler statement than the one posed for the symposium, which lists possible causes of moral decline rather than calling… More

A Great-books Junior College

– "A Great-books Junior College," symposium entitled "Nineteen Great Ideas for Repairing Civic Life," Policy Review, March-April 1996, p. 23.
Excerpt: My idea is to create a new one- or two-year junior college for bright students (or even not-so-bright students) to earn the education they did not receive in high school and… More

Harvard Loves Diversity

– "Harvard Loves Diversity," Weekly Standard, 25 March 1996.
Excerpt: A 58-page report from the president of Harvard on “Diversity and Learning” may not seem like hot stuff — and it isn’t, really — but it shows where… More

The Legacy of the Late Sixties

– “The Legacy of the Late Sixties,” Reassessing the Sixties, Stephen Macedo, ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Pp. 21-45.

Whatever Happened to Scepticism?

– "Whatever Happened to Scepticism?" review of New Federalist Papers, by Alan Brinkley, Nelson W. Polsby, and Kathleen M. Sullivan, and The Reopening of the American Mind, by James W. Vice, Times Literary Supplement, 26 February 1999.

The 30 Years’ War

– Janet Tassel, "The Thirty Years War," Harvard Magazine, September 1999.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, on a warm April day in 1969, Harvard faced one of the most daunting challenges in its history. Under the leadership of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS),… More

The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration

– Richardson, Lynda, "The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration: A Gadfly and Confessor To a Harvard Lineage," New York Times, 16 October 1999.
Excerpt: It is the first day of the semester, and Harvey C. Mansfield has once again drawn a standing-room-only crowd of Harvard students to his course on the history of ancient and… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts

– "Grade Inflation: It's Time to Face the Facts," Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 April 2001, B24.  Reprinted in The Long Term View 5 (Spring 2002): 39-44.
Excerpt: This term I decided to experiment with the grading of my political-philosophy course at Harvard. I am giving each student two grades: one for the registrar and the public record,… More

Seth Benardete, 1930-2001

– "Seth Benardete, 1930-2001," Weekly Standard, 3 December 2001.
Last week Seth Benardete died, a most extraordinary man, a scholar and a philosopher. His post in life was to be a classics professor at New York University, but he was not an especially… More

To B or Not to B?

– "To B or Not to B?," Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2001.
Excerpt: Harvard is now considering what to do about grade inflation. Having at last awakened to the scandal of giving its students 51% A’s and A-‘s and graduating 91% of them… More

Political Correctness

– “Political Correctness,” Gladly to Learn and Gladly to Teach: Essays on Religion and Political Philosophy in Honor of Ernest L. Fortin, A.A., Michael P. Foley and Douglas Kries, eds., Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002, 257-270.

How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue

– "How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue," Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 February 2003, B7-8.  Also published as "Harvard's Virtue," Academic Questions, vol. 15, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 15-20.

An Undergrad in Full

– “An Undergrad in Full,” review of I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe, Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2004.
Excerpt: Tom Wolfe was of course known as a social satirist long before he became the novelist we know today. One thinks, for instance, of “The Intelligent Coed’s Guide to… More

A More Demanding Curriculum

– "A More Demanding Curriculum," Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2004.
Excerpt: Our curriculum is what we, the faculty, choose to put before our students. It is what we collectively choose. Individually, we choose courses to teach that arise from our research… More

Fear and Intimidation at Harvard

– "Fear and Intimidation at Harvard: What Do Academic Women Want?" Weekly Standard, 7 March 2005.
Excerpt: AT LAST WEEK’S HARVARD FACULTY MEETING, President Larry Summers saved his job, but he took a pummeling from his angry critics. Summers is easily the most outstanding of the… More

Greek Books, American Life

– "Greek Books, American Life: The Wisdom of Eva Brann, Tutor and Philosopher," review of Open Secrets / Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul, by Eva Brann, Weekly Standard, 20 June 2005.
Excerpt: LET US CELEBRATE EVA BRANN, the kind old lady of St. John’s College. St. John’s is the Great Books school (actually two schools, in Annapolis and Santa Fe) where high… More

The Cost of Free Speech

– "The Cost of Free Speech: In the Universities It's Almost as High as the Tuition," review of Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, by Donald Alexander Downs, Weekly Standard, 3 October 2005.
Excerpt: SENSITIVITY HAS TAKEN OVER OUR society, and nowhere more securely than in our universities. To see what has happened, consider this small fact. Half a century ago, a liberal… More

The Debacle at Harvard

– "The Debacle at Harvard," Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2006.
Excerpt: It is a debacle at Harvard: a great university getting rid of its most outstanding president since James B. Conant, the only outstanding president at a major university today, and… More

At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11

– "At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11: After Five Years, Universities Remain Committed to Multiculturalism above All Else," Weekly Standard, 14 September 2006.
Excerpt: FIVE YEARS have now passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and what have our universities been doing? I can tell you about Harvard, and the answer is not reassuring. Harvard… More

Have It Your Way

– "Have It Your Way," Wall Street Journal, 16 November 2006.
Excerpt: The recent Harvard faculty report on general education has made waves for its new requirements to study America and religion. These may be good — we shall see — but the… More

Democracy and Greatness

– "Democracy and Greatness: The Education Americans Need," Weekly Standard, 11 December 2006.
Excerpt: We sometimes hear of the place of the great books in a democratic education (not, unfortunately, at Harvard). When it is spoken of approvingly, that place is at the center or in… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad

– "The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad," Weekly Standard, 9 Oct 2007.
Excerpt: In his grand confrontation with the Iranian president, President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University did his best to satisfy his American critics. He was tough, not soft; he… More

Hook-Up or Shut Up

– "Hook-Up or Shut Up," review of Sex and the Soul, by Donna Freitas, Wall Street Journal, 29 April 2008.
Excerpt: However high-minded their courses may sound – “Mirror of Princes,” say, or “The Political Philosophy of Aristotle” – college students today enter a low… More

The Cost of Affirmative Action

– "The Cost of Affirmative Action," Harvard Crimson, 4 June 2008.
Excerpt: In the Government Department where I happily reside at Harvard, there are about 50 professors and about three conservatives. In a politics department, mind you. This is the result… More

Friendship: Allan Bloom and Harvey Mansfield

– Video, Big Think, 5 May 2009. Time 5:46
Allan Bloom and Mansfield were close friends. Many of their students were lucky enough to study with both of them, encouraged by the other.

Profile in Courage by Emily Esfahani Smith

– Emily Esfahani Smith, “Profile in Courage: Harvey Mansfield,” Defining Ideas (a Hoover Institution online journal), December 13, 2010.
Excerpt: Liberalism believes that there are principles by which we live, self-evident truths, and that is our founding principle, all men are created equal.” Referring back to his foil,… More

Principles That Don’t Change

– "Principles That Don’t Change: Remarks on Accepting the Bradley Prize," City Journal, May 2011.
Excerpt: I want to tell you what it has been like to spend my life as a professor at Harvard, the most prestigious university in America, perhaps the world. In my time there, Old Harvard, a… More

Sociology and Other ‘Meathead’ Majors

– "Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors: Archie Bunker Was Right to Be Skeptical of His Son-in-Law's Opinions," Wall Street Journal, 31 May, 2011.
Excerpt: In this happy season of college graduations, students and parents will probably not be reflecting on the poor choices those students made in selecting their courses and majors. In… More

The Harvey Mansfield Story

– Eric P. Newcomer, “The Harvey Mansfield Story: Harvard’s Political Philosopher,” Harvard Crimson, March 1, 2012.  
Excerpt: Seated at Grafton Street Pub & Grill with a child-size glass of Guinness in hand, Professor Harvey Claflin Mansfield ’53, Harvard’s soft-spoken firebrand, has no intention… More

A Truly American Scholar

– "A Truly American Scholar: James Q. Wilson Was Able to Make Students Enthusiastic over Prudence, While Other Teachers Gained Applause Only with Displays of Liberalism or Extremism," Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2012.
Excerpt: Scholar James Q. Wilson, who died last week at the age of 80, hated to be praised. He was truly modest. Now that he has departed he can do no more, and it is up to those he left… More

Political Scientist, Par Excellence

– "Political Scientist, Par Excellence," Weekly Standard, 12 March 2012.
Excerpt: James Q. Wilson, a longtime teacher in the government department at Harvard, and an all-time political scientist, has died. He was a Californian who went to college at the… More

Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics

– "Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics," interview, The European, 4 June 2012.
Excerpt: There is a lot of worry about America becoming less political, but I don’t think that is accurate. I see the polarization of American politics into two parties, with each… More

Harvard Faculty Speeches, 1975-2006

View pdf version The speeches reported here were given by Harvey C. Mansfield over 31 years to meetings of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They have been edited by him in 2012.… More

The Higher Education Scandal

– "The Higher Education Scandal" Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2013.
Excerpt: Today’s liberals do not use liberalism to achieve excellence, but abandon  excellence to achieve liberalism. They have effectually eliminated conservatism  from higher… More

Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education

– “Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education,” The New Atlantis (Summer 2013).
Excerpt: Allan Bloom in his famous book The Closing of the American Mind (1987), drawing on Max Weber, calls the “fundamental issue” of our time “the relation between reason, or… More

Essays

Democracy and the Great Books

– "Democracy and the Great Books," an exchange with Richard Rorty, The New Republic, April 4, 1988.  Also published in French, Commentaire, Summer 1988, pp. 492-6.

The State of Harvard

– "The State of Harvard," review article in The Public Interest, No. 101 (Fall 1990), pp. 113-123.
Excerpt: HARVARD is either the best American university or close to it, and according to Henry Rosovsky, two-thirds of the world’s best universities are American. Rosovsky was dean of… More

Veritas

– "Veritas," The National Endowments: A Critical Symposium, L. Jarvik, H. London, and J. Cooper, eds., Los Angeles: The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 1995.

The National Prospect

– "The National Prospect," a symposium, Commentary Magazine, November 1995, 85-86.
Excerpt: Lack of virtue is dimming our national prospect. This is a simpler statement than the one posed for the symposium, which lists possible causes of moral decline rather than calling… More

A Great-books Junior College

– "A Great-books Junior College," symposium entitled "Nineteen Great Ideas for Repairing Civic Life," Policy Review, March-April 1996, p. 23.
Excerpt: My idea is to create a new one- or two-year junior college for bright students (or even not-so-bright students) to earn the education they did not receive in high school and… More

Harvard Loves Diversity

– "Harvard Loves Diversity," Weekly Standard, 25 March 1996.
Excerpt: A 58-page report from the president of Harvard on “Diversity and Learning” may not seem like hot stuff — and it isn’t, really — but it shows where… More

The Legacy of the Late Sixties

– “The Legacy of the Late Sixties,” Reassessing the Sixties, Stephen Macedo, ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Pp. 21-45.

Whatever Happened to Scepticism?

– "Whatever Happened to Scepticism?" review of New Federalist Papers, by Alan Brinkley, Nelson W. Polsby, and Kathleen M. Sullivan, and The Reopening of the American Mind, by James W. Vice, Times Literary Supplement, 26 February 1999.

The 30 Years’ War

– Janet Tassel, "The Thirty Years War," Harvard Magazine, September 1999.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, on a warm April day in 1969, Harvard faced one of the most daunting challenges in its history. Under the leadership of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS),… More

The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration

– Richardson, Lynda, "The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration: A Gadfly and Confessor To a Harvard Lineage," New York Times, 16 October 1999.
Excerpt: It is the first day of the semester, and Harvey C. Mansfield has once again drawn a standing-room-only crowd of Harvard students to his course on the history of ancient and… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts

– "Grade Inflation: It's Time to Face the Facts," Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 April 2001, B24.  Reprinted in The Long Term View 5 (Spring 2002): 39-44.
Excerpt: This term I decided to experiment with the grading of my political-philosophy course at Harvard. I am giving each student two grades: one for the registrar and the public record,… More

Seth Benardete, 1930-2001

– "Seth Benardete, 1930-2001," Weekly Standard, 3 December 2001.
Last week Seth Benardete died, a most extraordinary man, a scholar and a philosopher. His post in life was to be a classics professor at New York University, but he was not an especially… More

To B or Not to B?

– "To B or Not to B?," Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2001.
Excerpt: Harvard is now considering what to do about grade inflation. Having at last awakened to the scandal of giving its students 51% A’s and A-‘s and graduating 91% of them… More

Political Correctness

– “Political Correctness,” Gladly to Learn and Gladly to Teach: Essays on Religion and Political Philosophy in Honor of Ernest L. Fortin, A.A., Michael P. Foley and Douglas Kries, eds., Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002, 257-270.

How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue

– "How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue," Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 February 2003, B7-8.  Also published as "Harvard's Virtue," Academic Questions, vol. 15, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 15-20.

An Undergrad in Full

– “An Undergrad in Full,” review of I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe, Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2004.
Excerpt: Tom Wolfe was of course known as a social satirist long before he became the novelist we know today. One thinks, for instance, of “The Intelligent Coed’s Guide to… More

A More Demanding Curriculum

– "A More Demanding Curriculum," Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2004.
Excerpt: Our curriculum is what we, the faculty, choose to put before our students. It is what we collectively choose. Individually, we choose courses to teach that arise from our research… More

Fear and Intimidation at Harvard

– "Fear and Intimidation at Harvard: What Do Academic Women Want?" Weekly Standard, 7 March 2005.
Excerpt: AT LAST WEEK’S HARVARD FACULTY MEETING, President Larry Summers saved his job, but he took a pummeling from his angry critics. Summers is easily the most outstanding of the… More

Greek Books, American Life

– "Greek Books, American Life: The Wisdom of Eva Brann, Tutor and Philosopher," review of Open Secrets / Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul, by Eva Brann, Weekly Standard, 20 June 2005.
Excerpt: LET US CELEBRATE EVA BRANN, the kind old lady of St. John’s College. St. John’s is the Great Books school (actually two schools, in Annapolis and Santa Fe) where high… More

The Cost of Free Speech

– "The Cost of Free Speech: In the Universities It's Almost as High as the Tuition," review of Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, by Donald Alexander Downs, Weekly Standard, 3 October 2005.
Excerpt: SENSITIVITY HAS TAKEN OVER OUR society, and nowhere more securely than in our universities. To see what has happened, consider this small fact. Half a century ago, a liberal… More

The Debacle at Harvard

– "The Debacle at Harvard," Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2006.
Excerpt: It is a debacle at Harvard: a great university getting rid of its most outstanding president since James B. Conant, the only outstanding president at a major university today, and… More

At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11

– "At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11: After Five Years, Universities Remain Committed to Multiculturalism above All Else," Weekly Standard, 14 September 2006.
Excerpt: FIVE YEARS have now passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and what have our universities been doing? I can tell you about Harvard, and the answer is not reassuring. Harvard… More

Have It Your Way

– "Have It Your Way," Wall Street Journal, 16 November 2006.
Excerpt: The recent Harvard faculty report on general education has made waves for its new requirements to study America and religion. These may be good — we shall see — but the… More

Democracy and Greatness

– "Democracy and Greatness: The Education Americans Need," Weekly Standard, 11 December 2006.
Excerpt: We sometimes hear of the place of the great books in a democratic education (not, unfortunately, at Harvard). When it is spoken of approvingly, that place is at the center or in… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad

– "The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad," Weekly Standard, 9 Oct 2007.
Excerpt: In his grand confrontation with the Iranian president, President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University did his best to satisfy his American critics. He was tough, not soft; he… More

Hook-Up or Shut Up

– "Hook-Up or Shut Up," review of Sex and the Soul, by Donna Freitas, Wall Street Journal, 29 April 2008.
Excerpt: However high-minded their courses may sound – “Mirror of Princes,” say, or “The Political Philosophy of Aristotle” – college students today enter a low… More

The Cost of Affirmative Action

– "The Cost of Affirmative Action," Harvard Crimson, 4 June 2008.
Excerpt: In the Government Department where I happily reside at Harvard, there are about 50 professors and about three conservatives. In a politics department, mind you. This is the result… More

Friendship: Allan Bloom and Harvey Mansfield

– Video, Big Think, 5 May 2009. Time 5:46
Allan Bloom and Mansfield were close friends. Many of their students were lucky enough to study with both of them, encouraged by the other.

Profile in Courage by Emily Esfahani Smith

– Emily Esfahani Smith, “Profile in Courage: Harvey Mansfield,” Defining Ideas (a Hoover Institution online journal), December 13, 2010.
Excerpt: Liberalism believes that there are principles by which we live, self-evident truths, and that is our founding principle, all men are created equal.” Referring back to his foil,… More

Principles That Don’t Change

– "Principles That Don’t Change: Remarks on Accepting the Bradley Prize," City Journal, May 2011.
Excerpt: I want to tell you what it has been like to spend my life as a professor at Harvard, the most prestigious university in America, perhaps the world. In my time there, Old Harvard, a… More

Sociology and Other ‘Meathead’ Majors

– "Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors: Archie Bunker Was Right to Be Skeptical of His Son-in-Law's Opinions," Wall Street Journal, 31 May, 2011.
Excerpt: In this happy season of college graduations, students and parents will probably not be reflecting on the poor choices those students made in selecting their courses and majors. In… More

The Harvey Mansfield Story

– Eric P. Newcomer, “The Harvey Mansfield Story: Harvard’s Political Philosopher,” Harvard Crimson, March 1, 2012.  
Excerpt: Seated at Grafton Street Pub & Grill with a child-size glass of Guinness in hand, Professor Harvey Claflin Mansfield ’53, Harvard’s soft-spoken firebrand, has no intention… More

A Truly American Scholar

– "A Truly American Scholar: James Q. Wilson Was Able to Make Students Enthusiastic over Prudence, While Other Teachers Gained Applause Only with Displays of Liberalism or Extremism," Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2012.
Excerpt: Scholar James Q. Wilson, who died last week at the age of 80, hated to be praised. He was truly modest. Now that he has departed he can do no more, and it is up to those he left… More

Political Scientist, Par Excellence

– "Political Scientist, Par Excellence," Weekly Standard, 12 March 2012.
Excerpt: James Q. Wilson, a longtime teacher in the government department at Harvard, and an all-time political scientist, has died. He was a Californian who went to college at the… More

Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics

– "Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics," interview, The European, 4 June 2012.
Excerpt: There is a lot of worry about America becoming less political, but I don’t think that is accurate. I see the polarization of American politics into two parties, with each… More

Harvard Faculty Speeches, 1975-2006

View pdf version The speeches reported here were given by Harvey C. Mansfield over 31 years to meetings of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They have been edited by him in 2012.… More

The Higher Education Scandal

– "The Higher Education Scandal" Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2013.
Excerpt: Today’s liberals do not use liberalism to achieve excellence, but abandon  excellence to achieve liberalism. They have effectually eliminated conservatism  from higher… More

Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education

– “Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education,” The New Atlantis (Summer 2013).
Excerpt: Allan Bloom in his famous book The Closing of the American Mind (1987), drawing on Max Weber, calls the “fundamental issue” of our time “the relation between reason, or… More

Commentary

Democracy and the Great Books

– "Democracy and the Great Books," an exchange with Richard Rorty, The New Republic, April 4, 1988.  Also published in French, Commentaire, Summer 1988, pp. 492-6.

The State of Harvard

– "The State of Harvard," review article in The Public Interest, No. 101 (Fall 1990), pp. 113-123.
Excerpt: HARVARD is either the best American university or close to it, and according to Henry Rosovsky, two-thirds of the world’s best universities are American. Rosovsky was dean of… More

Veritas

– "Veritas," The National Endowments: A Critical Symposium, L. Jarvik, H. London, and J. Cooper, eds., Los Angeles: The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 1995.

The National Prospect

– "The National Prospect," a symposium, Commentary Magazine, November 1995, 85-86.
Excerpt: Lack of virtue is dimming our national prospect. This is a simpler statement than the one posed for the symposium, which lists possible causes of moral decline rather than calling… More

A Great-books Junior College

– "A Great-books Junior College," symposium entitled "Nineteen Great Ideas for Repairing Civic Life," Policy Review, March-April 1996, p. 23.
Excerpt: My idea is to create a new one- or two-year junior college for bright students (or even not-so-bright students) to earn the education they did not receive in high school and… More

Harvard Loves Diversity

– "Harvard Loves Diversity," Weekly Standard, 25 March 1996.
Excerpt: A 58-page report from the president of Harvard on “Diversity and Learning” may not seem like hot stuff — and it isn’t, really — but it shows where… More

The Legacy of the Late Sixties

– “The Legacy of the Late Sixties,” Reassessing the Sixties, Stephen Macedo, ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Pp. 21-45.

Whatever Happened to Scepticism?

– "Whatever Happened to Scepticism?" review of New Federalist Papers, by Alan Brinkley, Nelson W. Polsby, and Kathleen M. Sullivan, and The Reopening of the American Mind, by James W. Vice, Times Literary Supplement, 26 February 1999.

The 30 Years’ War

– Janet Tassel, "The Thirty Years War," Harvard Magazine, September 1999.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, on a warm April day in 1969, Harvard faced one of the most daunting challenges in its history. Under the leadership of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS),… More

The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration

– Richardson, Lynda, "The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration: A Gadfly and Confessor To a Harvard Lineage," New York Times, 16 October 1999.
Excerpt: It is the first day of the semester, and Harvey C. Mansfield has once again drawn a standing-room-only crowd of Harvard students to his course on the history of ancient and… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts

– "Grade Inflation: It's Time to Face the Facts," Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 April 2001, B24.  Reprinted in The Long Term View 5 (Spring 2002): 39-44.
Excerpt: This term I decided to experiment with the grading of my political-philosophy course at Harvard. I am giving each student two grades: one for the registrar and the public record,… More

Seth Benardete, 1930-2001

– "Seth Benardete, 1930-2001," Weekly Standard, 3 December 2001.
Last week Seth Benardete died, a most extraordinary man, a scholar and a philosopher. His post in life was to be a classics professor at New York University, but he was not an especially… More

To B or Not to B?

– "To B or Not to B?," Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2001.
Excerpt: Harvard is now considering what to do about grade inflation. Having at last awakened to the scandal of giving its students 51% A’s and A-‘s and graduating 91% of them… More

Political Correctness

– “Political Correctness,” Gladly to Learn and Gladly to Teach: Essays on Religion and Political Philosophy in Honor of Ernest L. Fortin, A.A., Michael P. Foley and Douglas Kries, eds., Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002, 257-270.

How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue

– "How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue," Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 February 2003, B7-8.  Also published as "Harvard's Virtue," Academic Questions, vol. 15, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 15-20.

An Undergrad in Full

– “An Undergrad in Full,” review of I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe, Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2004.
Excerpt: Tom Wolfe was of course known as a social satirist long before he became the novelist we know today. One thinks, for instance, of “The Intelligent Coed’s Guide to… More

A More Demanding Curriculum

– "A More Demanding Curriculum," Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2004.
Excerpt: Our curriculum is what we, the faculty, choose to put before our students. It is what we collectively choose. Individually, we choose courses to teach that arise from our research… More

Fear and Intimidation at Harvard

– "Fear and Intimidation at Harvard: What Do Academic Women Want?" Weekly Standard, 7 March 2005.
Excerpt: AT LAST WEEK’S HARVARD FACULTY MEETING, President Larry Summers saved his job, but he took a pummeling from his angry critics. Summers is easily the most outstanding of the… More

Greek Books, American Life

– "Greek Books, American Life: The Wisdom of Eva Brann, Tutor and Philosopher," review of Open Secrets / Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul, by Eva Brann, Weekly Standard, 20 June 2005.
Excerpt: LET US CELEBRATE EVA BRANN, the kind old lady of St. John’s College. St. John’s is the Great Books school (actually two schools, in Annapolis and Santa Fe) where high… More

The Cost of Free Speech

– "The Cost of Free Speech: In the Universities It's Almost as High as the Tuition," review of Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, by Donald Alexander Downs, Weekly Standard, 3 October 2005.
Excerpt: SENSITIVITY HAS TAKEN OVER OUR society, and nowhere more securely than in our universities. To see what has happened, consider this small fact. Half a century ago, a liberal… More

The Debacle at Harvard

– "The Debacle at Harvard," Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2006.
Excerpt: It is a debacle at Harvard: a great university getting rid of its most outstanding president since James B. Conant, the only outstanding president at a major university today, and… More

At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11

– "At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11: After Five Years, Universities Remain Committed to Multiculturalism above All Else," Weekly Standard, 14 September 2006.
Excerpt: FIVE YEARS have now passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and what have our universities been doing? I can tell you about Harvard, and the answer is not reassuring. Harvard… More

Have It Your Way

– "Have It Your Way," Wall Street Journal, 16 November 2006.
Excerpt: The recent Harvard faculty report on general education has made waves for its new requirements to study America and religion. These may be good — we shall see — but the… More

Democracy and Greatness

– "Democracy and Greatness: The Education Americans Need," Weekly Standard, 11 December 2006.
Excerpt: We sometimes hear of the place of the great books in a democratic education (not, unfortunately, at Harvard). When it is spoken of approvingly, that place is at the center or in… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad

– "The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad," Weekly Standard, 9 Oct 2007.
Excerpt: In his grand confrontation with the Iranian president, President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University did his best to satisfy his American critics. He was tough, not soft; he… More

Hook-Up or Shut Up

– "Hook-Up or Shut Up," review of Sex and the Soul, by Donna Freitas, Wall Street Journal, 29 April 2008.
Excerpt: However high-minded their courses may sound – “Mirror of Princes,” say, or “The Political Philosophy of Aristotle” – college students today enter a low… More

The Cost of Affirmative Action

– "The Cost of Affirmative Action," Harvard Crimson, 4 June 2008.
Excerpt: In the Government Department where I happily reside at Harvard, there are about 50 professors and about three conservatives. In a politics department, mind you. This is the result… More

Friendship: Allan Bloom and Harvey Mansfield

– Video, Big Think, 5 May 2009. Time 5:46
Allan Bloom and Mansfield were close friends. Many of their students were lucky enough to study with both of them, encouraged by the other.

Profile in Courage by Emily Esfahani Smith

– Emily Esfahani Smith, “Profile in Courage: Harvey Mansfield,” Defining Ideas (a Hoover Institution online journal), December 13, 2010.
Excerpt: Liberalism believes that there are principles by which we live, self-evident truths, and that is our founding principle, all men are created equal.” Referring back to his foil,… More

Principles That Don’t Change

– "Principles That Don’t Change: Remarks on Accepting the Bradley Prize," City Journal, May 2011.
Excerpt: I want to tell you what it has been like to spend my life as a professor at Harvard, the most prestigious university in America, perhaps the world. In my time there, Old Harvard, a… More

Sociology and Other ‘Meathead’ Majors

– "Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors: Archie Bunker Was Right to Be Skeptical of His Son-in-Law's Opinions," Wall Street Journal, 31 May, 2011.
Excerpt: In this happy season of college graduations, students and parents will probably not be reflecting on the poor choices those students made in selecting their courses and majors. In… More

The Harvey Mansfield Story

– Eric P. Newcomer, “The Harvey Mansfield Story: Harvard’s Political Philosopher,” Harvard Crimson, March 1, 2012.  
Excerpt: Seated at Grafton Street Pub & Grill with a child-size glass of Guinness in hand, Professor Harvey Claflin Mansfield ’53, Harvard’s soft-spoken firebrand, has no intention… More

A Truly American Scholar

– "A Truly American Scholar: James Q. Wilson Was Able to Make Students Enthusiastic over Prudence, While Other Teachers Gained Applause Only with Displays of Liberalism or Extremism," Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2012.
Excerpt: Scholar James Q. Wilson, who died last week at the age of 80, hated to be praised. He was truly modest. Now that he has departed he can do no more, and it is up to those he left… More

Political Scientist, Par Excellence

– "Political Scientist, Par Excellence," Weekly Standard, 12 March 2012.
Excerpt: James Q. Wilson, a longtime teacher in the government department at Harvard, and an all-time political scientist, has died. He was a Californian who went to college at the… More

Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics

– "Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics," interview, The European, 4 June 2012.
Excerpt: There is a lot of worry about America becoming less political, but I don’t think that is accurate. I see the polarization of American politics into two parties, with each… More

Harvard Faculty Speeches, 1975-2006

View pdf version The speeches reported here were given by Harvey C. Mansfield over 31 years to meetings of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They have been edited by him in 2012.… More

The Higher Education Scandal

– "The Higher Education Scandal" Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2013.
Excerpt: Today’s liberals do not use liberalism to achieve excellence, but abandon  excellence to achieve liberalism. They have effectually eliminated conservatism  from higher… More

Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education

– “Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education,” The New Atlantis (Summer 2013).
Excerpt: Allan Bloom in his famous book The Closing of the American Mind (1987), drawing on Max Weber, calls the “fundamental issue” of our time “the relation between reason, or… More

Multimedia

Democracy and the Great Books

– "Democracy and the Great Books," an exchange with Richard Rorty, The New Republic, April 4, 1988.  Also published in French, Commentaire, Summer 1988, pp. 492-6.

The State of Harvard

– "The State of Harvard," review article in The Public Interest, No. 101 (Fall 1990), pp. 113-123.
Excerpt: HARVARD is either the best American university or close to it, and according to Henry Rosovsky, two-thirds of the world’s best universities are American. Rosovsky was dean of… More

Veritas

– "Veritas," The National Endowments: A Critical Symposium, L. Jarvik, H. London, and J. Cooper, eds., Los Angeles: The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 1995.

The National Prospect

– "The National Prospect," a symposium, Commentary Magazine, November 1995, 85-86.
Excerpt: Lack of virtue is dimming our national prospect. This is a simpler statement than the one posed for the symposium, which lists possible causes of moral decline rather than calling… More

A Great-books Junior College

– "A Great-books Junior College," symposium entitled "Nineteen Great Ideas for Repairing Civic Life," Policy Review, March-April 1996, p. 23.
Excerpt: My idea is to create a new one- or two-year junior college for bright students (or even not-so-bright students) to earn the education they did not receive in high school and… More

Harvard Loves Diversity

– "Harvard Loves Diversity," Weekly Standard, 25 March 1996.
Excerpt: A 58-page report from the president of Harvard on “Diversity and Learning” may not seem like hot stuff — and it isn’t, really — but it shows where… More

The Legacy of the Late Sixties

– “The Legacy of the Late Sixties,” Reassessing the Sixties, Stephen Macedo, ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Pp. 21-45.

Whatever Happened to Scepticism?

– "Whatever Happened to Scepticism?" review of New Federalist Papers, by Alan Brinkley, Nelson W. Polsby, and Kathleen M. Sullivan, and The Reopening of the American Mind, by James W. Vice, Times Literary Supplement, 26 February 1999.

The 30 Years’ War

– Janet Tassel, "The Thirty Years War," Harvard Magazine, September 1999.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, on a warm April day in 1969, Harvard faced one of the most daunting challenges in its history. Under the leadership of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS),… More

The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration

– Richardson, Lynda, "The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration: A Gadfly and Confessor To a Harvard Lineage," New York Times, 16 October 1999.
Excerpt: It is the first day of the semester, and Harvey C. Mansfield has once again drawn a standing-room-only crowd of Harvard students to his course on the history of ancient and… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts

– "Grade Inflation: It's Time to Face the Facts," Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 April 2001, B24.  Reprinted in The Long Term View 5 (Spring 2002): 39-44.
Excerpt: This term I decided to experiment with the grading of my political-philosophy course at Harvard. I am giving each student two grades: one for the registrar and the public record,… More

Seth Benardete, 1930-2001

– "Seth Benardete, 1930-2001," Weekly Standard, 3 December 2001.
Last week Seth Benardete died, a most extraordinary man, a scholar and a philosopher. His post in life was to be a classics professor at New York University, but he was not an especially… More

To B or Not to B?

– "To B or Not to B?," Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2001.
Excerpt: Harvard is now considering what to do about grade inflation. Having at last awakened to the scandal of giving its students 51% A’s and A-‘s and graduating 91% of them… More

Political Correctness

– “Political Correctness,” Gladly to Learn and Gladly to Teach: Essays on Religion and Political Philosophy in Honor of Ernest L. Fortin, A.A., Michael P. Foley and Douglas Kries, eds., Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002, 257-270.

How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue

– "How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue," Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 February 2003, B7-8.  Also published as "Harvard's Virtue," Academic Questions, vol. 15, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 15-20.

An Undergrad in Full

– “An Undergrad in Full,” review of I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe, Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2004.
Excerpt: Tom Wolfe was of course known as a social satirist long before he became the novelist we know today. One thinks, for instance, of “The Intelligent Coed’s Guide to… More

A More Demanding Curriculum

– "A More Demanding Curriculum," Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2004.
Excerpt: Our curriculum is what we, the faculty, choose to put before our students. It is what we collectively choose. Individually, we choose courses to teach that arise from our research… More

Fear and Intimidation at Harvard

– "Fear and Intimidation at Harvard: What Do Academic Women Want?" Weekly Standard, 7 March 2005.
Excerpt: AT LAST WEEK’S HARVARD FACULTY MEETING, President Larry Summers saved his job, but he took a pummeling from his angry critics. Summers is easily the most outstanding of the… More

Greek Books, American Life

– "Greek Books, American Life: The Wisdom of Eva Brann, Tutor and Philosopher," review of Open Secrets / Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul, by Eva Brann, Weekly Standard, 20 June 2005.
Excerpt: LET US CELEBRATE EVA BRANN, the kind old lady of St. John’s College. St. John’s is the Great Books school (actually two schools, in Annapolis and Santa Fe) where high… More

The Cost of Free Speech

– "The Cost of Free Speech: In the Universities It's Almost as High as the Tuition," review of Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, by Donald Alexander Downs, Weekly Standard, 3 October 2005.
Excerpt: SENSITIVITY HAS TAKEN OVER OUR society, and nowhere more securely than in our universities. To see what has happened, consider this small fact. Half a century ago, a liberal… More

The Debacle at Harvard

– "The Debacle at Harvard," Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2006.
Excerpt: It is a debacle at Harvard: a great university getting rid of its most outstanding president since James B. Conant, the only outstanding president at a major university today, and… More

At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11

– "At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11: After Five Years, Universities Remain Committed to Multiculturalism above All Else," Weekly Standard, 14 September 2006.
Excerpt: FIVE YEARS have now passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and what have our universities been doing? I can tell you about Harvard, and the answer is not reassuring. Harvard… More

Have It Your Way

– "Have It Your Way," Wall Street Journal, 16 November 2006.
Excerpt: The recent Harvard faculty report on general education has made waves for its new requirements to study America and religion. These may be good — we shall see — but the… More

Democracy and Greatness

– "Democracy and Greatness: The Education Americans Need," Weekly Standard, 11 December 2006.
Excerpt: We sometimes hear of the place of the great books in a democratic education (not, unfortunately, at Harvard). When it is spoken of approvingly, that place is at the center or in… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad

– "The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad," Weekly Standard, 9 Oct 2007.
Excerpt: In his grand confrontation with the Iranian president, President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University did his best to satisfy his American critics. He was tough, not soft; he… More

Hook-Up or Shut Up

– "Hook-Up or Shut Up," review of Sex and the Soul, by Donna Freitas, Wall Street Journal, 29 April 2008.
Excerpt: However high-minded their courses may sound – “Mirror of Princes,” say, or “The Political Philosophy of Aristotle” – college students today enter a low… More

The Cost of Affirmative Action

– "The Cost of Affirmative Action," Harvard Crimson, 4 June 2008.
Excerpt: In the Government Department where I happily reside at Harvard, there are about 50 professors and about three conservatives. In a politics department, mind you. This is the result… More

Friendship: Allan Bloom and Harvey Mansfield

– Video, Big Think, 5 May 2009. Time 5:46
Allan Bloom and Mansfield were close friends. Many of their students were lucky enough to study with both of them, encouraged by the other.

Profile in Courage by Emily Esfahani Smith

– Emily Esfahani Smith, “Profile in Courage: Harvey Mansfield,” Defining Ideas (a Hoover Institution online journal), December 13, 2010.
Excerpt: Liberalism believes that there are principles by which we live, self-evident truths, and that is our founding principle, all men are created equal.” Referring back to his foil,… More

Principles That Don’t Change

– "Principles That Don’t Change: Remarks on Accepting the Bradley Prize," City Journal, May 2011.
Excerpt: I want to tell you what it has been like to spend my life as a professor at Harvard, the most prestigious university in America, perhaps the world. In my time there, Old Harvard, a… More

Sociology and Other ‘Meathead’ Majors

– "Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors: Archie Bunker Was Right to Be Skeptical of His Son-in-Law's Opinions," Wall Street Journal, 31 May, 2011.
Excerpt: In this happy season of college graduations, students and parents will probably not be reflecting on the poor choices those students made in selecting their courses and majors. In… More

The Harvey Mansfield Story

– Eric P. Newcomer, “The Harvey Mansfield Story: Harvard’s Political Philosopher,” Harvard Crimson, March 1, 2012.  
Excerpt: Seated at Grafton Street Pub & Grill with a child-size glass of Guinness in hand, Professor Harvey Claflin Mansfield ’53, Harvard’s soft-spoken firebrand, has no intention… More

A Truly American Scholar

– "A Truly American Scholar: James Q. Wilson Was Able to Make Students Enthusiastic over Prudence, While Other Teachers Gained Applause Only with Displays of Liberalism or Extremism," Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2012.
Excerpt: Scholar James Q. Wilson, who died last week at the age of 80, hated to be praised. He was truly modest. Now that he has departed he can do no more, and it is up to those he left… More

Political Scientist, Par Excellence

– "Political Scientist, Par Excellence," Weekly Standard, 12 March 2012.
Excerpt: James Q. Wilson, a longtime teacher in the government department at Harvard, and an all-time political scientist, has died. He was a Californian who went to college at the… More

Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics

– "Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics," interview, The European, 4 June 2012.
Excerpt: There is a lot of worry about America becoming less political, but I don’t think that is accurate. I see the polarization of American politics into two parties, with each… More

Harvard Faculty Speeches, 1975-2006

View pdf version The speeches reported here were given by Harvey C. Mansfield over 31 years to meetings of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They have been edited by him in 2012.… More

The Higher Education Scandal

– "The Higher Education Scandal" Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2013.
Excerpt: Today’s liberals do not use liberalism to achieve excellence, but abandon  excellence to achieve liberalism. They have effectually eliminated conservatism  from higher… More

Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education

– “Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education,” The New Atlantis (Summer 2013).
Excerpt: Allan Bloom in his famous book The Closing of the American Mind (1987), drawing on Max Weber, calls the “fundamental issue” of our time “the relation between reason, or… More

Teaching

Democracy and the Great Books

– "Democracy and the Great Books," an exchange with Richard Rorty, The New Republic, April 4, 1988.  Also published in French, Commentaire, Summer 1988, pp. 492-6.

The State of Harvard

– "The State of Harvard," review article in The Public Interest, No. 101 (Fall 1990), pp. 113-123.
Excerpt: HARVARD is either the best American university or close to it, and according to Henry Rosovsky, two-thirds of the world’s best universities are American. Rosovsky was dean of… More

Veritas

– "Veritas," The National Endowments: A Critical Symposium, L. Jarvik, H. London, and J. Cooper, eds., Los Angeles: The Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 1995.

The National Prospect

– "The National Prospect," a symposium, Commentary Magazine, November 1995, 85-86.
Excerpt: Lack of virtue is dimming our national prospect. This is a simpler statement than the one posed for the symposium, which lists possible causes of moral decline rather than calling… More

A Great-books Junior College

– "A Great-books Junior College," symposium entitled "Nineteen Great Ideas for Repairing Civic Life," Policy Review, March-April 1996, p. 23.
Excerpt: My idea is to create a new one- or two-year junior college for bright students (or even not-so-bright students) to earn the education they did not receive in high school and… More

Harvard Loves Diversity

– "Harvard Loves Diversity," Weekly Standard, 25 March 1996.
Excerpt: A 58-page report from the president of Harvard on “Diversity and Learning” may not seem like hot stuff — and it isn’t, really — but it shows where… More

The Legacy of the Late Sixties

– “The Legacy of the Late Sixties,” Reassessing the Sixties, Stephen Macedo, ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1997. Pp. 21-45.

Whatever Happened to Scepticism?

– "Whatever Happened to Scepticism?" review of New Federalist Papers, by Alan Brinkley, Nelson W. Polsby, and Kathleen M. Sullivan, and The Reopening of the American Mind, by James W. Vice, Times Literary Supplement, 26 February 1999.

The 30 Years’ War

– Janet Tassel, "The Thirty Years War," Harvard Magazine, September 1999.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, on a warm April day in 1969, Harvard faced one of the most daunting challenges in its history. Under the leadership of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS),… More

The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration

– Richardson, Lynda, "The Mentor Conservatives Turn to for Inspiration: A Gadfly and Confessor To a Harvard Lineage," New York Times, 16 October 1999.
Excerpt: It is the first day of the semester, and Harvey C. Mansfield has once again drawn a standing-room-only crowd of Harvard students to his course on the history of ancient and… More

The Trouble with Stanley

– "The Trouble with Stanley," review of The Trouble with Principle, by Stanley Fish, National Review, 7 February 2000, 46-48.
Excerpt: The trouble with principle, we learn from Stanley Fish, is that it does not necessarily accord with what we like. And when it doesn’t, instead of sacrificing our desires to… More

Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts

– "Grade Inflation: It's Time to Face the Facts," Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 April 2001, B24.  Reprinted in The Long Term View 5 (Spring 2002): 39-44.
Excerpt: This term I decided to experiment with the grading of my political-philosophy course at Harvard. I am giving each student two grades: one for the registrar and the public record,… More

Seth Benardete, 1930-2001

– "Seth Benardete, 1930-2001," Weekly Standard, 3 December 2001.
Last week Seth Benardete died, a most extraordinary man, a scholar and a philosopher. His post in life was to be a classics professor at New York University, but he was not an especially… More

To B or Not to B?

– "To B or Not to B?," Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2001.
Excerpt: Harvard is now considering what to do about grade inflation. Having at last awakened to the scandal of giving its students 51% A’s and A-‘s and graduating 91% of them… More

Political Correctness

– “Political Correctness,” Gladly to Learn and Gladly to Teach: Essays on Religion and Political Philosophy in Honor of Ernest L. Fortin, A.A., Michael P. Foley and Douglas Kries, eds., Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002, 257-270.

How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue

– "How Harvard Compromised Its Virtue," Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 February 2003, B7-8.  Also published as "Harvard's Virtue," Academic Questions, vol. 15, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 15-20.

An Undergrad in Full

– “An Undergrad in Full,” review of I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe, Wall Street Journal, 5 November 2004.
Excerpt: Tom Wolfe was of course known as a social satirist long before he became the novelist we know today. One thinks, for instance, of “The Intelligent Coed’s Guide to… More

A More Demanding Curriculum

– "A More Demanding Curriculum," Claremont Review of Books, Winter 2004.
Excerpt: Our curriculum is what we, the faculty, choose to put before our students. It is what we collectively choose. Individually, we choose courses to teach that arise from our research… More

Fear and Intimidation at Harvard

– "Fear and Intimidation at Harvard: What Do Academic Women Want?" Weekly Standard, 7 March 2005.
Excerpt: AT LAST WEEK’S HARVARD FACULTY MEETING, President Larry Summers saved his job, but he took a pummeling from his angry critics. Summers is easily the most outstanding of the… More

Greek Books, American Life

– "Greek Books, American Life: The Wisdom of Eva Brann, Tutor and Philosopher," review of Open Secrets / Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul, by Eva Brann, Weekly Standard, 20 June 2005.
Excerpt: LET US CELEBRATE EVA BRANN, the kind old lady of St. John’s College. St. John’s is the Great Books school (actually two schools, in Annapolis and Santa Fe) where high… More

The Cost of Free Speech

– "The Cost of Free Speech: In the Universities It's Almost as High as the Tuition," review of Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus, by Donald Alexander Downs, Weekly Standard, 3 October 2005.
Excerpt: SENSITIVITY HAS TAKEN OVER OUR society, and nowhere more securely than in our universities. To see what has happened, consider this small fact. Half a century ago, a liberal… More

The Debacle at Harvard

– "The Debacle at Harvard," Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2006.
Excerpt: It is a debacle at Harvard: a great university getting rid of its most outstanding president since James B. Conant, the only outstanding president at a major university today, and… More

At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11

– "At Universities, Little Learned From 9/11: After Five Years, Universities Remain Committed to Multiculturalism above All Else," Weekly Standard, 14 September 2006.
Excerpt: FIVE YEARS have now passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and what have our universities been doing? I can tell you about Harvard, and the answer is not reassuring. Harvard… More

Have It Your Way

– "Have It Your Way," Wall Street Journal, 16 November 2006.
Excerpt: The recent Harvard faculty report on general education has made waves for its new requirements to study America and religion. These may be good — we shall see — but the… More

Democracy and Greatness

– "Democracy and Greatness: The Education Americans Need," Weekly Standard, 11 December 2006.
Excerpt: We sometimes hear of the place of the great books in a democratic education (not, unfortunately, at Harvard). When it is spoken of approvingly, that place is at the center or in… More

Philosophy as a Way of Life

– Blitz, Mark, "Philosophy as a Way of Life," National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: A student who attends Harvard today might think of Harvey Mansfield as a tough-grading conservative who defends manliness on late night television. But in the early 1960s, many… More

Harvey Mansfield Interview

– Interview with Bruce Cole, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2007.
Excerpt: BRUCE COLE: How would you describe your scholarly activity or intellectual interests? HARVEY MANSFIELD The book I recently published on manliness is my most topical and has… More

The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad

– "The Tough-Guy Liberal: Lee Bollinger Tries to Take on Ahmadinejad," Weekly Standard, 9 Oct 2007.
Excerpt: In his grand confrontation with the Iranian president, President Lee Bollinger of Columbia University did his best to satisfy his American critics. He was tough, not soft; he… More

Hook-Up or Shut Up

– "Hook-Up or Shut Up," review of Sex and the Soul, by Donna Freitas, Wall Street Journal, 29 April 2008.
Excerpt: However high-minded their courses may sound – “Mirror of Princes,” say, or “The Political Philosophy of Aristotle” – college students today enter a low… More

The Cost of Affirmative Action

– "The Cost of Affirmative Action," Harvard Crimson, 4 June 2008.
Excerpt: In the Government Department where I happily reside at Harvard, there are about 50 professors and about three conservatives. In a politics department, mind you. This is the result… More

Friendship: Allan Bloom and Harvey Mansfield

– Video, Big Think, 5 May 2009. Time 5:46
Allan Bloom and Mansfield were close friends. Many of their students were lucky enough to study with both of them, encouraged by the other.

Profile in Courage by Emily Esfahani Smith

– Emily Esfahani Smith, “Profile in Courage: Harvey Mansfield,” Defining Ideas (a Hoover Institution online journal), December 13, 2010.
Excerpt: Liberalism believes that there are principles by which we live, self-evident truths, and that is our founding principle, all men are created equal.” Referring back to his foil,… More

Principles That Don’t Change

– "Principles That Don’t Change: Remarks on Accepting the Bradley Prize," City Journal, May 2011.
Excerpt: I want to tell you what it has been like to spend my life as a professor at Harvard, the most prestigious university in America, perhaps the world. In my time there, Old Harvard, a… More

Sociology and Other ‘Meathead’ Majors

– "Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors: Archie Bunker Was Right to Be Skeptical of His Son-in-Law's Opinions," Wall Street Journal, 31 May, 2011.
Excerpt: In this happy season of college graduations, students and parents will probably not be reflecting on the poor choices those students made in selecting their courses and majors. In… More

The Harvey Mansfield Story

– Eric P. Newcomer, “The Harvey Mansfield Story: Harvard’s Political Philosopher,” Harvard Crimson, March 1, 2012.  
Excerpt: Seated at Grafton Street Pub & Grill with a child-size glass of Guinness in hand, Professor Harvey Claflin Mansfield ’53, Harvard’s soft-spoken firebrand, has no intention… More

A Truly American Scholar

– "A Truly American Scholar: James Q. Wilson Was Able to Make Students Enthusiastic over Prudence, While Other Teachers Gained Applause Only with Displays of Liberalism or Extremism," Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2012.
Excerpt: Scholar James Q. Wilson, who died last week at the age of 80, hated to be praised. He was truly modest. Now that he has departed he can do no more, and it is up to those he left… More

Political Scientist, Par Excellence

– "Political Scientist, Par Excellence," Weekly Standard, 12 March 2012.
Excerpt: James Q. Wilson, a longtime teacher in the government department at Harvard, and an all-time political scientist, has died. He was a Californian who went to college at the… More

Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics

– "Too Much Government, and Not Enough Politics," interview, The European, 4 June 2012.
Excerpt: There is a lot of worry about America becoming less political, but I don’t think that is accurate. I see the polarization of American politics into two parties, with each… More

Harvard Faculty Speeches, 1975-2006

View pdf version The speeches reported here were given by Harvey C. Mansfield over 31 years to meetings of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. They have been edited by him in 2012.… More

The Higher Education Scandal

– "The Higher Education Scandal" Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2013.
Excerpt: Today’s liberals do not use liberalism to achieve excellence, but abandon  excellence to achieve liberalism. They have effectually eliminated conservatism  from higher… More

Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education

– “Science and Non-Science in Liberal Education,” The New Atlantis (Summer 2013).
Excerpt: Allan Bloom in his famous book The Closing of the American Mind (1987), drawing on Max Weber, calls the “fundamental issue” of our time “the relation between reason, or… More