Two of the giants of American conservative political thought died at the end of last week.  They both contributed in their own way not only to the advancement of true scholarship in political theory, but also as public intellectuals who were willing and more than capable of coming “out of the bunker” to speak truth to power.  Walter Berns and Harry Jaffa both died on the same day, the former at the age of 95 and the latter at 97.  Berns received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago, while Jaffa received his PhD from The New School for Social Research in political philosophy, and both studied under the famous political philosophy Leo Strauss.  Both had long careers in teaching and writing, though Berns suffered more in liberal fights in academia than Jaffa.  Berns ended up at Georegtown in DC and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) while Jaffa landed at the Claremont Graduate University in California.

Walter Berns made his mark through his work for AEI in a wide variety of areas including constitutionalism.  Jaffa was known for his scholarly work on the ideals of the American Founders and their ancient roots and especially the thought of Abraham Lincoln and his study of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.  Both were committed to the ideas and ideals of political conservatism as it is understood today—the principles of constitutionalism, limited government, freedom.  And both were articulate defenders of those ideals.

A couple of interesting personal notes.  For a long time Berns and Jaffa did  not get along, mainly due to Jaffa’s notorious propensity to criticize harshly even his supporters.  And, I think interesting also, is the fact that Jaffa taught at Ohio State for a few years, along with Leo Strauss.  Would that they had both remained there.  Finally, while at Cornell, Berns actually developed a conservative core of political science professors, but alas, the 60’s student demands for less Western study and the caving of the administration to those demands killed the effort.

Scholars like these two are rare but their influence will hopefully continue.