Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Jaffa’s Douglas

Jaffa’s Douglas In my view, Harry V. Jaffa’s Crisis of the House Divided is the most important work of scholarship published in the field of American political thought. The greatness of the book has to do, first, with its discovery of Abraham Lincoln as a serious political thinker and, second, with its positioning Lincoln as a founder superior to the founders of 1776, including even Thomas Jefferson. The latter project required a study of the principles of Jefferson and the other founders in their own right, and Jaffa’s book includes passages that add up to perhaps the best study in that regard too. Chapters 9 and 14 are the sections I have in mind.1But the greatness of Jaffa’s Crisis also lies in two other less discussed qualities of the book. One is a mastery of historical context that is rare to find in what would otherwise be a book of political theory. Jaffa likely undertook the work to master the material because he saw this not as a work of political theory or political philosophy but rather as a study of statesmanship. In order to evaluate Lincoln’s statesmanship, Jaffa believed that his reader must be able to understand Lincoln’s choices as http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Political Thought University of Chicago Press

Jaffa’s Douglas

Bailey, Jeremy D.
American Political Thought , Volume 12 (2): 10 – Mar 1, 2023
Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/university-of-chicago-press/jaffa-s-douglas-zK7I9zqn6w

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Copyright
© 2023 The Jack Miller Center. All rights reserved.
ISSN
2161-1580
eISSN
2161-1599
DOI
10.1086/724495
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In my view, Harry V. Jaffa’s Crisis of the House Divided is the most important work of scholarship published in the field of American political thought. The greatness of the book has to do, first, with its discovery of Abraham Lincoln as a serious political thinker and, second, with its positioning Lincoln as a founder superior to the founders of 1776, including even Thomas Jefferson. The latter project required a study of the principles of Jefferson and the other founders in their own right, and Jaffa’s book includes passages that add up to perhaps the best study in that regard too. Chapters 9 and 14 are the sections I have in mind.1But the greatness of Jaffa’s Crisis also lies in two other less discussed qualities of the book. One is a mastery of historical context that is rare to find in what would otherwise be a book of political theory. Jaffa likely undertook the work to master the material because he saw this not as a work of political theory or political philosophy but rather as a study of statesmanship. In order to evaluate Lincoln’s statesmanship, Jaffa believed that his reader must be able to understand Lincoln’s choices as

Journal

American Political Thought – University of Chicago Press

Published: Mar 1, 2023

There are no references for this article.