The Soul of Politics: Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America

by Glenn Ellmers

Overview

Harry V. Jaffa (1918-2015), professor at Claremont McKenna College and Distinguished Fellow of the Claremont Institute, was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His hundreds of students have reached positions of power and prestige throughout the intellectual and political world, including the Supreme Court and the Trump White House.

Jaffa authored Barry Goldwater’s famous 1964 Republican Convention speech which declared, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” William F. Buckley, Jaffa’s close friend and a key figure in shaping the modern conservative movement, wrote, “If you think it is hard arguing with Harry Jaffa, try agreeing with him.” His widely acclaimed book Crisis of the House Divided: An Interpretation of the Issues in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1959), was the first scholarly work to treat Abraham Lincoln as a serious philosophic thinker.

As the earliest protégé of the controversial scholar Leo Strauss, Jaffa turned his theoretical insights to understanding the United States as the “best regime” in principle. He saw the American Revolution and the Civil War as world-historical events that revealed the true nature of politics. Statesmanship, constitutional government, and the virtues of republican citizenship are keys to unlocking the most important truths of political philosophy.

Jaffa’s student, Glenn Ellmers, was given complete access to Jaffa’s private papers at Hillsdale College to produce the first comprehensive examination of his teacher’s vast body of work. In addition to Lincoln and the founding fathers, the book shares Jaffa’s profound insights into Aristotle, Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, and more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641772006
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	09/07/2021
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	1,050,990
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Glenn Ellmers holds a Ph.D. in politics from Claremont Graduate University, where he studied with Harry Jaffa. He is a visiting research fellow with Hillsdale College and a senior fellow with the Claremont Institute. He has served as a speechwriter for two Cabinet secretaries, and has published articles and essays in the Claremont Review of Books, The Review of Metaphysics, Modern Age, Law & Liberty, National Review, and American Greatness.

Table of Contents

Foreword Larry P. Arnn ix

A Note to the Reader xvii

1 Ballots, Bullets, and Books 1

2 The Open Door 15

3 Lincoln, Justice, and America 51

4 The Philosopher and the Poet: Aristotle and Shakespeare 85

5 Reason, Revelation, and the Theological-Political Problem 137

6 Statesmanship, Tyranny, and Freedom 181

7 Quarrels: Neocons and Paleocons, the Strauss Wars, Original Intent 221

8 The Unfinished and Unfinishable Quest": Jaffa's Legacy and the Future of America 279

Postscript: The Problem of the Divided Mind 297

Acknowledgments 323

Harry V. Jaffa Selected Bibliography 325

Notes 347

Index 385

Editorial Reviews

Glenn Ellmers has now done what, before he did it, I would have said could not be done. He has clearly and accessibly summarized Jaffa’s thought without oversimplifying or giving (almost) anything short shrift.”
—Michael Anton, American Greatness

“In a time of ideologues, this is a book worth reading. No doubt, there’s a fight for America going on, and those interested in fighting for their country must first fight the battle for their own minds before getting onto the battlefield of thought. The Soul of Politics is a great place to start.”

—Dustin Bass, The Epoch Times

A “measured, knowledgeable, and scrupulously argued intellectual biography.”

—Peter Berkowitz, Washington Examiner

“. . . an exhaustive study of his mentor . . .” “The Soul of Politics shows that the triumph of Jaffa and his adherents rests in their providing a narrative about America’s past. . . .”

—Paul Gottfried, Chronicles

“Anyone who wishes to understand modern American politics should read Ellmers’ book.”

—Russ Greene, Medium

“Ellmers provides a detailed, deep dive down to the solid moral and philosophical grounds of free societies through the life of Jaffa. Ellmers gives compelling reasons for why Jaffa’s hero Lincoln once famously referred to the United States as the ‘last best hope of Earth.’ Those who want to preserve this hope should review Ellmers’ biography of Jaffa.”

—Andrew E. Harrod, MercatorNet

“What Ellmers has produced is a book that is as erudite and challenging as Jaffa himself, a concordance to have at hand when reading Jaffa’s enduring body of work.” 

—Steven F. Hayward, Modern Age

“This is a good and important book. It is a book about the extraordinary thought of Harry Jaffa by someone who took the time and put in the work to understand the extraordinary thought of Harry Jaffa, one of the most important thinkers of our time, perhaps of all time.”

—Tom Krannawitter, The Vino & Veritas Society

A “lively, gracefully written book that is at once learned, accessible, and challenging…. Ellmers succeeds in convincing the fair-minded reader of Jaffa’s impressive and still highly relevant achievement.”

—Daniel J. Mahoney, City Journal

“I learned a great deal from Leo Strauss and Harry Jaffa. Glenn Ellmers’ The Soul of Politics has done much to refresh my memory of what I had learned and what I had forgotten. The book’s clarity in elucidating the intellectual and theoretical ground of Jaffa’s thought, his debt to Leo Strauss, and his ability to reveal the prudential, practical, and political character of Lincoln’s statesmanship in light of that intellectual tradition, goes a long way toward making Jaffa’s thought accessible to a new generation of young people who cannot but be concerned with political reality.”

—John Marini, The American Mind

“Harry V. Jaffa continues to inspire a few on the American Right and haunt the rest. Glenn Ellmers’s The Soul of Politics is the most extended example of Jaffa’s tutelary spirit tutoring the post-conservative Right.”

—Pavlos L. Papadopoulos, Postmodern Conservative 

“Glenn Ellmers has written an enlightening biography of the late Harry Jaffa, a political theorist whose views on the American Founding have become conventional wisdom in certain conservative circles.”

—Tom Pauken, The Imaginative Conservative

“We would be wise to reflect on and act in light of Ellmers’ patient and illuminating look at Harry Jaffa’s scholarship, because nothing less than the future of our nation is at stake.”

—Mike Sabo, The Public Discourse

“Although the stories Ellmers includes about Jaffa’s life are delightful, the focus of The Soul of Politics: Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America is primarily on Jaffa’s ideas, including the arguments highlighted in sundry dialogues and disputes with wary interlocutors. One could say that Ellmers gives us the Apology of Harry Jaffa.”

—Colleen A. Sheehan, Claremont Review of Books

“In the hands of his students, Jaffa’s thought is a philosophy of radical conservative restoration. Ellmers himself has been at the forefront of radical, often anti-immigrant, rightwing writing associated with the Claremont Institute.”

—Joshua Tait, Journal of American Political Thought

“Ellmers’ fine book truly shows how Jaffa’s work sheds light on our situation. For showing that we have not transcended the political problems of the classical and Christian world, Jaffa is an unforgettable thinker. Ellmers’ book goes a long way towards ensuring that he will be remembered.”

—Scott Yenor, Law & Liberty

From the Publisher