'Louis Hartz' (
8 April 1919 -
20 January 1986) was an
American political scientist and influential
liberal proponent of the idea of
American exceptionalism.
Hartz was born in
Youngstown, Ohio, the son of
Russian immigrants, but grew up in
Omaha, Nebraska. After graduating from Omaha Technical High School, he attended
Harvard University, financed partly by a scholarship from the ''
Omaha World Herald''.
Career
Hartz graduated in
1940, spent a year traveling abroad on a fellowship, then returned to Harvard as a teaching fellow in
1942. He earned his
PhD in
1946 and became a full
professor of government in
1956. Hartz was known at Harvard for his talented and charismatic teaching. He retired in
1974 due to ill health and spent his last years living in
London,
New Delhi,
New York, then
Istanbul, where he died.
Hartz is best known for his classic book ''The Liberal Tradition in America'' (1955) which presented an original view of America's past that sought to explain its conspicuous absence of
ideologies. Hartz argued that American political development occurs within the context of an enduring, underlying
Lockean liberal consensus, which has shaped and narrowed the landscape of possibilities for U.S. political thought and behavior. He attributed the triumph of the liberal worldview in America to its lack of a
feudal past, and thus the absent struggle to overcome a conservative internal order; its vast resources and open space; and to the liberal values of the original
settlers, who represented only a narrow
middle-class slice of
European society. Hartz was chiefly concerned with explaining the failure of
socialism to become established in America, and believed that Americans' pervasive, unthinking consensual acceptance of
classic liberalism was the major barrier. Hartz thus firmly rejected
Marxist ideas about the inevitability of
class struggle.
Legacy
In
1956 the
American Political Science Association awarded Hartz its
Woodrow Wilson Prize for ''The Liberal Tradition in America'', and in
1977 gave him its Lippincott Prize, designed to honor scholarly works of enduring importance. The book remains a key text in the
political science graduate
curriculum in American politics in
universities today, in part because of the extensive, long-running criticism and commentary Hartz's ideas have generated.
Books
★ ''Economic Policy and Democratic Thought: Pennsylvania 1776-1860''.
1948.
Harvard University Press.
★ ''The Liberal Tradition in America: An Interpretation of American Political Thought since the Revolution''.
1955. Harcourt, Brace.
★ ''The Founding of New Societies: Studies in the History of the United States, Latin America, South Africa, Canada, and Australia''.
1964. Harcourt, Brace & World. (edited).
★ ''The Necessity of Choice: Nineteenth-Century Political Thought''.
1990. Transaction.
Journal Articles
★ “Otis and Anti-Slavery Doctrine.”
1939. ''New England Quarterly'' 12(4): 745-747.
★ “Seth Luther: The Story of a Working-Class Rebel.”
1940. ''New England Quarterly'' 13(3): 401-418.
★ “Goals for Political Science: A Discussion.”
1951. ''
American Political Science Review'' 45(4): 1001-1005.
★ “American Political Thought and the American Revolution.”
1952. ''
American Political Science Review'' 46(2): 321-342.
★ “The Reactionary Enlightenment: Southern Political Thought before the Civil War.”
1952. ''Western Political Quarterly'' 5(1): 31-50.
★ “The Whig Tradition in America and Europe.”
1952. ''
American Political Science Review'' 46(4): 989-1002.
★ “The Coming of Age of America.”
1957. ''
American Political Science Review'' 51(2): 474-483.
★ “Conflicts within the Idea of the Liberal Tradition.”
1963. ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 5(3): 279-284.
★ “American Historiography and Comparative Analysis: Further Reflections.”
1963. ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' 5(4): 365-377.
★ “The Nature of Revolution.”
2005 [1968]. ''Society'' 42(4): 54-61.
Criticism
★
Smith, Rogers.
1993. “Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America.” ''
American Political Science Review'' 87(3): 549-566.
★ Ericson, David and Louisa Green, eds.
1999. ''The Liberal Tradition in American Politics: Reassessing the Legacy of American Liberalism''. Routledge.
Sources
★ Barber, Benjamin.
1986. “Louis Hartz.” ''Political Theory'' 14(3): 355-358.
★ Margolick, David.
1986. “Louis Hartz of Harvard Dies: Ex-Professor of Government.” ''
New York Times'', 24 January.
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