Harvey Mansfield

Harvey Mansfield

Political Theorist; Author; Professor, Harvard

Harvey C. Mansfield, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government, studies and teaches political philosophy. He has written on Edmund Burke and the nature of political parties, on Machiavelli and the invention of indirect government, in defense of a defensible liberalism and in favor of a Constitutional American political science. He has also written on the discovery and development of the theory of executive power, and has translated three books of Machiavelli’s and (with the aid of his wife) Tocqueville's Democracy in America. His book on manliness has just been published. He was Chairman of the Government Department from 1973-1977, has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships, and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center. He won the Joseph R. Levenson award for his teaching at Harvard, received the Sidney Hook Memorial award from the National Association of Scholars, and in 2004 accepted a National Humanities Medal from the President.  He has hardly left Harvard since his first arrival in 1949, and has been on the faculty since 1962.

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Harvey Mansfield discuss the classical thinkers, such as Plato and Aristotle, how he finds inspiration in returning to their thought.
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Harvey Mansfield asks what Tocqueville would think of today’s America?
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Harvey Mansfield would look for the things democracy overlooks.
Technology is an ambiguous good for a freedom-loving people, Harvey Mansfield says.
Harvey Mansfield believes nature is on our side.
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Americans, Harvey Mansfield says, are impatient and should give the war effort more time to succeed.
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The War on Terror, or global warming?
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The same thinking that led to the Nazi and Communist revolutions also led to the American Revolution.
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Harvey Mansfield says philosophers first conceived this thing we call modernity.
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Religion, Harvey Mansfield says, conforms to each person’s sense of importance.
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Harvey Mansfield takes on affirmative action.
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Harvey Mansfield discusses the concept of manhood.
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Harvey Mansfield argues for a strong executive because law cannot prescribe every situation in advance.
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Harvey Mansfield discusses how we’ve strayed from the vision of the founding fathers.
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Harvey Mansfield discusses finding something greater than the partisan divide.
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Harvey Mansfield believes that understanding political philosophy is key to living the good life.
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Harvey Mansfield thinks there is a difference between political philosophy and political science, though there ought not to be.
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Harvey Mansfield was born in one college town, raised in another one.