Eric Voegelin in Baton Rouge

42BJB

Monika Puhl

Eric Voegelin in Baton Rouge

Wilhe1m Wilhelm Fink Verlag

00042606

PVA

2005. 2736

Bibliografische Bihliografis
Eric Erle Voegelin was Oße one of oflhe the founding fathers of ofpolitical political science scießee in post-war Science at Gennany. In 1958, he was appointed to the first Chair of Political Scießee the University of Munich. Munieh. Shortly thereafter, he founded the Institute for PoIitical Science Scießee (Iater litical (later to become the Geschwister-Scholl-Institut) and directed it until his retirement. Sißce Since the beginning of the 19505, there had been attempts to introduce political science scießee as an independent subject of research and teaching at Gennan universities. The first professorship had already been created in 1946 at the University of Cologne. But overall, the establishment of political science as an sbortly after academic discipline proceeded very slowly.2 On the one hand, so shortly the downfall of the Nazi regime, Gennany Germany had a lack of qualified personnel that was not politically compromised. comprornised. On the other hand. very few emigrants decided to accept an appointment appoinunent in Germany, Germany. partly because the Gennan authorities were reluctant to make concessions to them. Voegelin himselfhad himself had declined a first offer to come to Gennany Germany in the early 1950s. When he eventually returned retumed to his native country, he was an American workerl in tite Uniteci Swtes fOl 1i1Osi of t>f his adult cltizen who had liveri and worked Citizen life. This book is about the sixteen years preceding the return, years that Voegelin and his wife Lissy spent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Despite the fact that some of his major works were written weinen during that time, not much is known about this period in Voegelin's life. The sources on Voegelin's life in Louisiana arc are scarce. Little has been writweitten on this topic. and, from these days, only onIy Voegelin's Voegelin 's works and parts of his correspondence remain. The portrait presented here is based mainly on Voegelin's Hn 's correspondence, letters about him, hirn, press reports, reports. and interviews with his documenlS of Americontemporaries. It also draws on the mainly unpublished documents can archives, public records, and of some of the foundations with which Voegelin was in contact. contacl. This makes it difficult to draw a biographical sketch. In terms tenns of the interviews, for example, example. one must note that only the names of such colleagues and students are known who were closely connected with him hirn and his work for a relatively long period of time. It is therefore only onIy natural

, 2

Opitz 1989,235: translalion by au~. See HerzlWeinbttger in BI«.k/Lieczmann Blttk/Lieczmann 1999,269-291. See also Sleek Bleek 2001 and Marsen 2001.

14

ERIC VOEGEUN IN BATON ROUGE

that positive impressions and memories of the teacher and mentor prevail. In addition, it must be emphasized that the interviewees were asked about incidents that. in some cases, took place morc than fifty years earlier. For this reason, some of the things they recalled and reponed must be viewed critically_ While it is generally true that a philosopher's work is more important than his biography, there are at least two reasons why it is a worthwhile endeavor to shed light on Voegelin's life in America. For one thing, the biographical information gathered is of use for understanding the thinker-at least in addition to the interpretation and criticism of bis work. For another, Voegelin encountered the typical problems of an intellectual in exile, and his story is part of201h century Gennan and German-American history. The aim of this work is not to deliver an intellectual history but rather to sketch Voegelin's years in the South. The demand for biographical infonnation on Voegelin has grown with the increasing interest his work has found in recent years.) There seems to be a desire for more infonnation on 'Voegelin-the man.' This work is a compilation, classification, and first assessment of infonnation that could function as material for a full-blown biography still to be written. This is why everyday life, the university surroundings, and Voegelin's every· day use of and academic work in American English are given special empha)

In the last twenty years a number of institutions have taken it upon them to catalog and publish Voegelin's works. Over !he years, centers of Voegelin scholarship have been established, e.g. in the United States (the Eric Ycwgelin Institute for RefIDusance Sludies in Baton Rouge, LA), in Germany (the Eric.Yoegelin-Bibliothd: in Erlangen and the Eric·Yoegelin. Archil' at the University of Munich), and in England (the CLntrefor Voegelin Studies at the Univenity of Manchester). The Hoo\V!r Institution on War, Re'I'Olution, and Peoce in Stanford. CA. houses Voegelin's scientific legacy. International conferences on Eric Voegelin's work take place on a regular basis (e.g. at the annual meeting ofw American Political Science Association). In the: 19805. a 34·votume complete edition of Voegelin's work (The Collected Works Series, CW) was undenaken under the direction of the Eric Voegelin Institute for Renaissance Studies. In Gennany, a critical translation of his main work, Order and HislOry. IS In progress. "Several reasons are responsible for the growing interests in his work [in Germany): (I) the editorial activities of the Eric Voegelin Archive in Munich under the dirtttion of Professor Peter 1. Opitz. With the OccasiOtwl Papers Series, the archive has created an international forum of Voegelin studies; furthermore, the Periagoge Series, published with the well-noted Wilhelm Fink publishing house and edited by Opitz, made available important parts of the Vocgelinian oeuvre which had either been out of print for a long time or not been translated into German. (2) Since 1989, the general intellectual climate has become more open to approaches transcending the antagonistic scheme of left and right; at the same time, the idea has been growing thal, in spite of all the differences, National Socialist and Manist· CommuniSI totalitarianislll$ share some common pathological roots. (3) Also since 1989, the histol'izatioo of postwar Germany and ils intellectual-political development-the old Bundes· reptJb/ik~ facilitated a general recollection of intellectual positions of the past noI so commonly known anymore. (4) Finally, in the age of an increasingly brutal capitalism and a global pop-culrure functioning as the secular high religion of this capitalism the general disappointment about modernity has not gone; on the contrary, theoretical approaches otTering a Substantial criticism of the disposition of the modem mind-like Voegelin's-are becoming attr.lcti~ again:' (Weiss 2000&, 753-4).

INTRODUCTION

15

sis. It shows how a Gennan-speaking philosopher whose thought was shaped by a continental way of thinking was able to secure himself a distinguished place in the American world of arts. Born in 1901 as a Gennan citizen under the name of Erich Hennann Wilhelm Vogelin, he grew up, lived and worked in Austria until he fled from the Nazis in 1938 to America. In 1942, Voegelin took a position at the Louisiana State University. How the lives of Voegelin and his wife changed from that day on, is the subject of this book.

42bJb

2. BEGINNINGS

2.1. Way from Vienna to Baton Rouge

Voegelin began his studies at the University of Vienna in 1919, matriculating in the Law Faculty. In 1922, he received his degree ofDr.rer.pol.l with honors. With an Otto Weininger Fellowship 2, he was able to do graduate work in Berlin and Heidelberg. He returned in 1923 to work as Assistant to the Chair for Public Law in Vienna, first to Hans Kelsen and later to one of Kelsen's students, Adolf Merk!. After two years in the United States (Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Wisconsin), from 1924 to 1926, and one year (1927) at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on a Rockefeller fellowship, he returned to his position in Vienna. In 1929, he started teaching at the University of Vienna as Privaldozenl for Government and Sociology. In 1932, he married Luise Betty "Lissy" Onken. He was promoted to Associate Professor of Government in 1936, and at the time of the Anschluss, 1938, he was expecting to be promoted again, this time to a full professorship with unlimited tenure at the University of Graz. 3 Voegelin never tried to hide his anti-National Socialist sentiments. His critical works about race ideology and the mass movements of his time (1933: Rasse und Slaat; Die Rassenidee in der Geistesgeschichle; 1936: Der auloritiire Staat; 1938: Die Polilischen Religionen) provoked the NationalSocialists' anger. The l:ierhn publisher Junker Imd Diinnhallpl withdrew Die Rassenidee in der Geistesgeschichle from circulation; the remainder of the

,

"Voegelin had hesitated between doctoral programs in mathematics and physics, in law, and a new program in political science offered in the faculty of law, ultimately choosing the last but continuing his interest in the fonner subjects. His decision tumed on a lack of real enthusiasm for mathematics. an unwillingness to become a civil servant (which the program in law probably would have led to), and economic considerations: he was very poor, and the political science degree was attainable in three years, but the law degree would have required four. In addition, he was strongly attracted to the study of politics and to the distinguished faculty in thai field at Vienna." (VR, 34f) See also AR, 3. The topic of his dissertation was Wechselw;rkung und Gezweiung. "Wechselwirkung was the key tenn of Georg Simmel's sociology, which fonned the basis for the further development of the Beziehungslehre in German social science. Gezweiung was the favorite term in the sociology of Othmar Spann:' (AR,

26). Otto Weininger,· 3. 4. 1880 Vienna, t 4. 10. 1903 (suicide); philosopher. Although of Jewish ancestry he had an antisemitic attitude and was advocate of anti-women and anli-sexual positions. He killed himself by the age of 23 in the same house Beethoven died. He had a lasting effect on the history of Austrian Ihought (K. Kraus, E. Canetti, R. Musil, L. Wiltgen. stein) and was used by the National Socialists to legitimize their antisemitism. For a more detailed description ofVoegelin's palh from Vienna 10 LSU, see: Cooper 1999, I·

32.

00042bJ6

ERIC VOEGELIN IN BATON ROUGE

18

edition was destroyed. By the end of 1933 both books on race were "unavailable. not Die Po/Wschen ReJigionen was especially disliked by the Nazis. As Barry Cooper argues: the identification of the Nazis as a satanic force for evil was sufficiently unambiguous even for the most dull-wined employee of the Gestapo to realize that the author was nol on [their] side. Voegelin was, therefore, not at all surprised that he had been marked as an enemy, though he was very much surprised (and angered) that the western powers would make such an obvious blunder as to permit the occupation of AUSlria in March 1938.~

COOpers, of course, has the benefit of hindsight. The 1938 edition had been published without a foreword or any other comments by the author. Only a quote by Dante, "Per me si va ne la citta dolente" ('Through me one enters the city of pain'), had preceded the hook. After reading this first edition, Thomas Mann warned Voegelin in a letter of July 1938 that the scientist's fascination for his topic might be mistaken for sympathy: To me, [the disadvantage of your work} seems to be that your objectivity sometimes gains such an uncritical, positively interested accent and stans to act as an apology for the disgraceful pragmatism that is so pervasive. One is waiting for moral resistance and for some suppon of the ethical jronde which is arising, I believe, all over the world against this "revolution of nihilism.'.6

To prevent further misunderstandings such as Mann's, Voegelin published the 1939 edition with a foreword (already written in the United States) in which he explained that "anyone able to read will recognize my deep aversion against any kind of political collectivism on the basis of the verse by Dante that precedes the treatise .....7 However, the draft of this foreword that Voegelin had sent Thomas Mann and Alfred Schuetz in advance was never published in full length. After Schuetz' warning it was shortened, in particular by removing the story of Herschel Grynspan and Voegelin's argument deriving from this story.'

•

,

• • 7

"Sebba in 1977 commented on his own early reading of these two early books: 'When I read these two books I knew that Voegelin would be on the Nazi list when Austria fell. I still wonder how he had the nerve to publish both books in Hitler's Germany, and how two German publishers could be blind enough to accept them. ,., (VR, 53). Cooper 1999, 10. Letter from Mann, December 18, 1938. (HI 24.11; translation by author). CW 5, 23 (German: HI 24.11). See also: Opitz in PR 1993. "1m System einer personalistischen Ethik steht der Wert der PersonalitlU hOher als der Wert des Lebens, und eine Person, die geplOndert, bespuckt und verkauft wird, ist sittlich ver· pflichtet diese Handlung unmOglich zu machen, wenn nOtig durch Mord. Nach den GrundsAtzen einer personalistischen Ethik wllre ein Mord, den ein Jude an einem Nationalsozialisten, der ihn als Sache behandelt, begeht. nicht nur zu entschuldigen: er wAre Pflicht." (HI 24.11).

BEGINNINGS

19

"When one considers the content ofVoegelin's four books on modern ideological politics published by 1938, it is small wonder that the Gestapo was hot on his trail after Hitler's annexation of Austria:>9 As early as November 1937, the Gennan National Socialist party had begun to increase the pressure on the Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg. Schuschnigg's last efforts to save Austria's independence by meeting Hitler on February 12, 1938, and ordering a plebiscite for March 13 did not succeed. When Mussolini fmally agreed to ignore the Gennan march into Austria, Hitler ordered Gennan troops to invade on the day before the plebiscite was to take place. On March 12, German troops invaded Austria and were cheered by the population. Against the regulations of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), Austria was annexed to the Gennan Reich as the Ostmark. The persecution of political opponents as well as the suppression of free speech began immediately. In the following months, many of the best Austrian intellectuals, artists, and scientists had to flee the country. Voegelin immediately began to prepare his departure and, as a known Nazi critic, was soon dismissed from his job and encouraged to emigrate. 10 With the help of his friend Alex von Muralt, a Swiss journalist, Voegelin had previously managed to deposit some money in Zurich. He wrote to the Rockefeller Foundation for help in finding new job. II Because the American government Schuetz on Mann and the f6l Robert Holtman remembered him as someone who "tended to look down his nose:>64 and his former colleague Robert 1. Steamer recalled: Occasionally he displayed an intellectual arrogance in the classroom of which I can recall two examples. In replying to a student who had asked a question, he said: 'I can't answer thai question because it contains no thought content.' The second example was his criticism of the New York Times slogan, •All the news that is fit to print: Eric maintained that about halftne news in the Times was not fit to print. 65

A person who remembered Voegelin only with great admiration was his longtime secretary Josephine 'Jo' Scurria: In earlier times the bulk of manuscript typing was done for Dr. Voegelin who later became an international scholar, (...] 1 feel honored to have Iyped manuscripts for this eminent polilical theorist whose works have been recogni7.ed by leading scholars, and who was kind enough to mention my name in Ihe acknowledgments of his work. 66

Scurria remembered Voegelin as a very friendly gentleman, a devoted husband, and a nice man to work for. He never forgot to complement her on her look or the smell of a new perfume. He always thanked her for her work and gave her thoughtful and generous presents for her birthday, Christmas, and 62

63

6'l 65

66

Hughes to Puhl, December 23, 2000 (E-mail). Sachse to Puhl, December 13, 2000, and Pascal to Puhl, January 28, 2000. Goethals said about the relation Voegelin-Carmichael: "Carmichael detested Voegelin because many philosophy students were flocking to Voegelin" (10 Puhl, September 2, 200 I). Holtman to Publ, January II, 200 I. leiter from Steamer to Puhl, December 31,2000. Scuma, 16. She was referring 10 the acknowledgments of the NSP: "[ ... ) My thanks for excellent secretarial help go to Miss Josephine Scuma {... J." (NSP, xii).

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

73

other occasions. Scuma wannly recalled Lissy Voegelin as having said that she wanted their daughter to be like her. And even when the Voegelins had already moved to Munich, he wrote her a letter during the Gennan Karneval season, telling her about the secretaries running around in carnival costumes. He added: "Just imagine how the enrollment would go up if you were on exhibition in black tights with a taiH"" In the English Deparunent, Voegelin also had contact with other colleagues besides Heilman. During his time at LSU, Cleanth Brooks" and Roben Penn Warren" also happened to he at LSU. In 1935 they had founded the (later) well-known journal The Southern Review. 1O a regional achievement of national reputation that grew famous and 'died' in I942---()nly to be revived in 1965. Warren left LSU in 1942 to Minnesota, Brooks in 1947 to Yale. Voegelin met Warren and was friends with Brooks, whose capacities in English language and literature he highly esteemed. In later years, Voegelin frequently worked with The SOllthern Review, mainly with Professors Lewis P. Simpson 71 and Donald E. Stanford. Simpson (later a co-Boyd Professor) aboutVoegelin: I must say that at that time I knew Voegelin entirely by his campus reputation as a distinguished member of the political science faculty who had come to the United States as a refugee from Hitler. I had been told that he was not Jewish. My first personal impression of him confirmed this. When onc day at the Faculty Club he was pointed out to me as he strode imperiously through the lounge smoking a formidable cigar, I branded him a Prussian. n

Simpson remembered Voegelin as "the only one around here who had such a background and knowledge," as an "intensely intellectual" man with «a real sense of humor" who did not like American parties but nevertheless easily identified with tile South. n

67 6B

tfJ

10

71

n n

Lttter from Voegelin to Scwria. February 23,1958. Cleanth Brooks (October 16, 1906-May 10, 1994), one of the founders of New Criticism, Faulkner scholar, educator, and lecturer; studied at Vanderbilt. Tulane and Oxford Universities; 1932 appointed professor of English at Louisiana State University. Brooks and Rohert Penn Warren. who joined the LSU faculty two years after Brooks' arrival. jointly edited The Southern Rl!\.iew from 1935 to 1942. 1947 appointed professor of English at Vale University. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards. Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905-September 14, 1989). the only American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for both fiction and poetry; studied at Vanderbilt. University of California in Berkeley, and Old'ord. After teaching literature for one year at Southwestern College (Memphis) and three years at Vanderbilt, Warren was appointed to the English faculty at Louisiana State University in 1934. There he joined Cleanth Brooks and Charles Pipkin in founding and editing The Southern Rn-iew. 1942-1950 University of Minnesota; 1950-1952 Vale. For more on The Southun Rn-iew see Heilman 1991. 24-44 et al. Ltwis P. Simpson came to LSU in fall 1948. He was editor of The Southern Rn-iew and has been a Boyd Professor since 1980. Simpson in: Sandoz 1991. 73. Simpson to Publ, April 18,2000.

00042bJb

74

ERIC VOEGELIN IN BATON ROUGE

Professor Robert A. Pascal was another colleague ofVoegelin's. Pascal met Voegelin in 1946, when he was Assistant Professor in Law and anended Voegelin's lectures. They were together in the 'Monograph Club' and occasionally met off-campus. He described him as "a very pleasant individual" who "was sometimes angry with people who did not want to think" and someone who liked people and was eager to find something out about them and thus social in his own way. Some professors were opposed to Voegelin because of fundamentally different philosophies of life, but he did not let this disturb him in his work. According to Pascal, the very good students liked him, the ordinary students did not appreciate him enough. "Voegelin always knew what he was saying, why, and when. He was very sure and careful about his positions and exhausted himself[of] all possible thoughts."74 In 1954, Pascal asked Voegelin to teach classes at the Law Schoo!. Voegelin agreed and taught one half ofa class of which the other half was taught by Pascal.

4.1.5. Teaching topics Considering that Voegelin had a strong accent and spoke of ideas of whichmost of his students had never heard, he was probably not the easiest lecturer to follow. As William Havard remembered: If one should stand just beyond the limits of the point at which his actual words could be understood, his lectures probably would sound monotonous because both the flow of the sentences and the lack of inflection make for an evenness that could be deadly in one whose ideas are less exciting than Voegelin's.7s

So, it was not surprising that it took him only one lecture, his first public lecture as visiting professor at LSU, to be misunderstood and on this occasion, it was publicly discussed in the university newspaper The Reveille. After this lecture/6 an anonymous 'subscriber' wrote a letter that was published in The Reveille and followed by a flood of protesting leners. He (or she) stated, 1 believe that this lecture is the biggest piece of effrontery ever offered to a university public. [... J it is amazing that a foreigner has to take it upon himself in this day and time

74 Pascal to Puhl, January 28, 2000. 7S

76

SR 7 I, 59. "Dr. Voegelin will divide his subject, 'British War Aims,' into three parts. As an introductory discussion he will talk of the problem of war aims in general. He will also point out implications of the Atlantic charter. Major parts of his speech will be given to a discussion of the British war aims as shown in a pamphlet by British historian R. H. Tawney on 'Why Britain Fights.' Tawney shows the British way of life and the collapse of the order of Western civilization. After the telling of the problems of national states and social justice in the British Isles, the British historian makes suggestions for future international institutions. Dr. Voegelin will bring up the specific views of Tawney and seek to show the aims of the British in the present conflict." (The Reveille, February 24, 1942); See also HI 61.14. For more details about the content of the lecture see "Definite War Aims Are Needed for Fighting War, Voegelin Says" In: The Baton Rouge Advocate, February 25, 1942.

42636

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

75

and as a guest of our country and of our university, to tell us that we are an ignorant, Wlthinking, materialistic nation without aims or spiritual values, fighting only with the vague notion of 'keeping the aggressor ofT, possibly.' [... j A SUBSCRIBERn

The (published) reactions to this letter to the editor were completely in favor ofVoegelin and came from such people as Professor Jefferson Fordham of the Law School, Professor Robert Harris of the Government Department, Dean William Scroggs of the Graduate School, Professor Aldeo Powell of the Government Department, Georgia Wilson of the LSU News Bureau. George Dalferes and William Beven from the Kappa Sigma House. and Professor Peter Cannichael of the Departmeot of Philosophy. They tried to stress how glad and grateful the LSU community was about Dr. Voegelin's presence. how right he was that he had only quoted another author's critical remarks about America. and how cowardly, unethical, discourteous, and wrong the "subscriber" was. 7' This was perhaps not the best start at a new university. but probably one of the more effective ways to become known on campus. The lecture that created so much attention was the first of five in a series of 'lectures on war and foreign policy.' Voegelin had offered Harris a list of sixteen possible lecture topics from which Harris chose the following: 1. British War Aims (February 24); 2. The Issue of Principles between America and Japan (March II); 3. Soviet Russia: What is Communist, what is Russian (March 25); 4. Aoglo-American Political Society and the Continental State (April 15, later postponed to April 29); 5. The End of the Western Stale System (April 29. later postponed to May 7; there is no evidence whether the lecture really took place)." The Reveille reported about the second lecture, too. They announced it in a lengthy anicie on the day of the presentation and reviewed it the day after:

The Rt!\~iIIe. February 26,1942. See appendix A2.3. for the whole article and some of the reactions to it. 11 Harris wrote to all these people personally. assuring them how much he appreciated their reaction and saying that "it is to be hoped that the writer of the leiter was made as uncomronable by your letter and others as he deserved to be made." (Several letters from Harris on March 6.1942; Government Files). 79 In a leller to Harris on December 13, 1941, Voegelin wrote: "The titles for public lectures and infonnal talks which I can put at your disposition are the following: I) British War Aims; 2) The Issue of Principles between America and Japan; 3) The Isolationist Sentiment. Its Origin and Its Agony; 4) Soviet Russia: What is Communist, what is Russian; 5) Limits of Toleration; 6) Rational and Emotional Democracy; 7) Political Religions; 8) The Structure of Politics since the Reformation; 9) Spiritual Diseases in Politics; 10) The Asiatic Background of Machiavelli; II) Anglo-American Political Society and the Continental State; 12) The End of the Western State System; 13) The Mystical Roots of Political Theory: 14) Political Theory of the Mongol Empire; J5) The Spanish Conquest of America and the Rise of International Law; 16) OostoievsJcy's Great Inquisiu:.. You see that the number of titles is in excess of your demand; I have selected them from different fields; you may cOOse those which you consickr most interesting for )'OW" community. From the point of view of science the more relevant are numbers 7. 8, 9, 10. 13 and 14 as they contain results of research mostly unpublished." (Government Files).

77

000426Jb

76

ERIC VOEGEUN IN 8ATON ROUGE

Dr. Eric Voegelin (... j last night cited documents to prove that the issues between the United States and Japan are those of definition only. [... j Her (Japan's j expansion today, Dr. Vocgelin continued, is parallel with that of Germany·s. While the United States believes that peace exists in living in hannony with other nations, Dr. Voegelin proved that Japan's idea is Japanese domination. 80

One day later, they printed a correction: Dr. Eric Voegelin, visiting lecturer in government, cited documents in his Wednesday night lecture not "to prove that the issues between the United States and Japan are those of definition only," as reported in yesterday's Reveille, but rather to prove that peace in the Japanese sense means Japanese domination, Dr. Voegelin said yesterday.11

Harris and Professor Marvin Osborn of the School of Journalism exchanged letters after this second incident and agreed on a special procedure for covering Voegelin's lectures: The material must be checked and verified by Voegelin before publication. 82 The following lectures during that semester were obviously covered to his satisfaction. 83 It seemed that Voegelin and the university press did not have the same idea on how to cover campus news. Five years later, he would have the opportunity to make his point of view c1ear--once and for all. In his first semester, as in later years, Voegelin not only gave lectures at LSU but "in addition there were three or four lectures to women['s]-clubs, Kiwanis, students, [and a] sociological seminar."84 He also was a well-liked lecturer at the International Relations Club (IRC) at LSU. He spoke about 'The Constant Elements of Italian Politics' (December 1943), 'Imperialism in the Russian Revolution' (October 1945), Bakunin's 'Confession' (November 1945), the current events in Russia (March 1946), 'American Foreign Policy in China' (February 1947), and 'Education and American World Leadership' (May 1954). In March 1946, The Reveille quoted Voegelin as having said that "War with Russia is inevitable." Only one full week later they corrected their quotation to read: "War with Russia is inevitable unless the expansionist movement is stopped. 'oss By then, Voegelin had had enough of The Reveille and their reporters. When he lectured again at an IRC meeting in February 1947, he

80 II 82

13 S4

IS

The Reveille, March 12. 1942: see also The Reveille. March 10 and II, 1942. The Reveille. March 13, 1942. Leiters between Harris and Osborn, March 12, 13, 16, 1942. (Government Files). See The Reveille, March 25. 26. April 29, 30, 1942. Letter to Manin, July 23, 1942 (HI 24.22). He spoke at the Kiwanis club on March 5, 1942 about Japan, her history and her reasons for attacking other nations. "'Ln other words.' he said, 'the groups that now rule Japan have everything to gain and nothing to lose because of the fact thai if the fonner ruling classes again get the upper hand, the position of leadCTShip now will be that of practically serfdom. ". (The RevejlJe. March 6, 1942). See The Reveille, December 10, 1943; OcIOber 30, 1945; November 2, 1945: March 13, 19, 26,1946; May 12, 13, 1954.

0004263&

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

77

refused to address his remarks 10 an audience that included a Reveille reporter, and rather than deny the assembled group the remarks of Dr. Voegelin, the reporter withdrew. [... J Dr. Voegelin had started to walJc away when he turned and said, 'thai is blackmail. I will DOl submit 10 blackmail. I am going to report you 10 the Journalism School in the morning for attempting 10 blackmail me.' Following this conversation, the reporter left the room and the meeting began. t6

The next day's article was headlined "Voegelin Bars The Reveille From Speech" and, additionally on the first page, "Editorial: Dr. Voegelin and Rights of the Press." The author of the editorial admitted, that "On several occasions in the past, Dr. Eric H. Voegelin [...] has been misquoted by The Reveille-by staffs other than the present one. Dr. Voegelin had reason to be apprehensive." But he also referred to the incident as "one of deeper significance" because "Dr. Voegelin's action has precedence in the dark days of the press' struggle for a voice" and because "to throttle the press for political reasons is a serious infringement on the public's rights. To deprive it of its function for lesser reason is a lesser crime perhaps, but not less dangerous."81 These remarks received a loud response from the LSU community: some defending Voegelin (among them eleven students who wrote a letter together), others taking sides with the reporter. Roben Harris did not even bother to write to The Reveille anymore; instead, he wrote a four-page letter to Dean Frey, acting President of LSU. Harris recalled the incidents of the past years and explained that they had already tried to take "precautions earlier of checking with Reveille reponers on the matter of accuracy and that [it] proved inadequate" and that he therefore had advised Voegelin not to lecture anymore in the presence of reporters. Harris went on: I bdic\oe I lI:11 beill& fOlii tu tile DircciOi c:.f'ilk: Schoul of Juum.tlisl.l WIIClI I sun...' li3J. j:zo: his attitude as follows: (I) Due to the youth and inexperience of The Reveille reporters, they frequently make errors; (2) There must be freedom of the press. including The Reveille, and this freedom includes blackmailing a person who does not desire to speak for publication; (3) The Director of the School of Journalism will defend the right of The Reveille to misquole and unethically 10 attack persons who lake adequate steps to protecl themselves against misquotations; (4) The Director of the School of Journalism, allhough willing to defend and obstruct, has not the courage to assume any responsibility. either personal or institutional, for such outrages. On the basis of this altitude, I am instructing the members of the Department of Government, if they want to be protected against such outrages as occurred on February 12. to refrain from making any speeches on the campus and if necessary to seek the protection of the local constabulary .....hen speaking off the campus. Though such is a definite curtailment of academic freedom and freedom of speech. I can not idly permit my colleagues to be the innocent victims ofjournalistic terrorism. U

16 17

It

Thl! Rl!'lvdlll!, February 13. 1947. Ibid. Harris to Frey. February 21.1947 (Government Files). For the other reactions published in The Rew!jJ/e see appendix A2.3.

00042636

78

ERIC VOEGELIN IN BATON ROUGE

During the following years, the relation between The Reveille and Voegelin stayed calm.

Voegelin obviously liked to lecture, as he pointed out in a letter to Harris in November 1941: Let me state specifically that I am rather extroven about lectures and do not experience them as a burden at all. You can have from me as many public lectures as you want (and as the public will stand without throwing things) if they are necessary for fulfilling requirements of teaching-load.19

Most of the time, Voegelin voluntarily exceeded the required teaching load of twelve hours. 9O He taught all kinds of topics; he used to teach two sections of the introductory class of American Government for undergraduates, and he also regularly taught comparative government. on occasion diplomatic history, as well as the law school's course in jurisprudenee [starting in 1954J. But his main course was always the history of political theory and the graduate seminars in theory which drew many of the university's best students. With the increasing prominence of China in the 19405, Voegelin was elected, because of his linguistic facility. to teach a course in Chinese politics; and he learned enough Chinese to read the classical source materials in 91 the process of developing this course, which he taught for a decade.

In his first semester at LSU, the spring semester of 1942, Voegelin was supposed to teach the undergraduate courses 161 (The Nature ofthe State If) and 148 (War and Defense Policies If) as well as the graduate course 276 (Modern Po/Weal Theory- "A survey of political theory from Rousseau to the present with emphasis upon the development of conflicting political theories and ideologies."). When Professor Charles Hyneman unexpectedly left for Washington, Harris had to change the course arrangements, and he asked Voegelin if he would teach the second semester of the beginning course in American Governmenl in lieu of 161. Voegelin agreed, stressing that he wanted "to be as useful as possible.'>92 When asked for a short outline of his 148 class, Voegelin suggested the following: Evasion and Isolation from Colonial Separatism to Isolationism. The idea of the New World; Western Hemisphere policy. American imperialism from the opening of China and Japan to Theodore Roosevelt. The sentiment of the agricullural frontiers; The end of the Frontier and Isolationism; the entrance on the world-scene. Wilson and the transfer

89

Letter to Harris. November I, 1941 (Government Files). He not only gave lectures at LSU and in the surrounding area, but also travelled. a great deal within the United States and abroad to present his work to a broader audience (sec appendix AI.4.). 90 "While teaching a schedule ranging anywhere from eleven to twenty hours, with fifteen hours the most usual amount. Professor Voegelin has not neglected research." Harris to Dean Howe, March 8,1945. (Government Files). YR. 73-74. 92 leiters between Harris and Voegelin November I, 1941; December 6,13.1941; January 20, 22, 1942. (Government Files). For details on Hyneman see appendix A1.3.

"

~2636

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

79

of Victorian ideas to the international field 1be American idea of peace and worldorganization. The new imperialism; Communism., National Socialism., Shintoism. The conflict between !he new imperialism and American policy. 1be organization of American Democracy in thc age of total war. American war and peace aims. The problem of American leadership in international atTairs. 9l

Concerning the theory class he stated: As this is a serninar-course with not too many students I think it will be suffidem if we put such textbooks as are in !he library (Cook [A Hislory of Political Philosophy], Sabine [History of Political Theory), Dunning, etc.) on reserve; otherwise I shall give collateral readings from sources and monographic Iitemture and have them put on reserve when I am with you and see the materials in !he libmry myself.~

Hermann Moyse, Jr. was one ofVoegelin's first students at LSU. He took the theory class and the class on American War and Defense Policies. (Among the theory students was also Hubert Humphrey.) Moyse remembered that Voegelin spoke aboul vocative ideas and original thoughts, be look historical events and synthesized them. Voegelin began the class with bow Jesus' teachings changed the social order of politics. He was sitting there for two hours without a break and when the four· o'c!ock·whistJe blew, he lighted a cigar and !he class was over. After the class, we often lalked for ano!her hour on and off campus. Voegelin had no time schedule for the classes; he tried to cover the malerial as far as he could come in this time. He stayed pretty much in cllronological order, but he never completed everything because he mn out of lime."

After the incident with The Reveille reporter in February 1942, Voegelin "spent the better part of the next class discussing this," Voegelin was very sensitive when someone a."'sociated him with the German Nazi regi.me. The first female editor of The Reveille was in this class, and she had "a very uncomfortable half an hour with Voegelin''''' when he began complaining that her colleague was not sufficiently trained and that he tended to take quotes out of context. In any case, his first semester seemed to be satisfactory to him: My courses are shaping up quite well. The course of war-policies has 23 students, !he seminar on theory has nine regular attendants, and the special course in American Government (for A and B students onlr) has 15; all of which seems gorgeous according 10 the quantity requirements of L.S.V. 9

In April 1942, Voegelin wrote to Elliott about a matter on which the Fourth Army Corps approached LSU:

9l ,. " 96

97

Letter to Harris, Oe«mber 13. 1941. (Government Files). utter 10 Harris, December 6, 1941. (Government Files). Moyse to Publ, February 28, 2000. Ibid, leiter 10 Martin, February 19. 1942. (Government Files).

80

ERIC VOEGEUN IN BATON ROUGE

They want to make an experiment with a course of twelve hours in which their men should receive some infonnation on Gennan, halian and Japanese political beliefs. The staff of the Army Corps will attend the course and ask such questions as they deem particularly important. One of the more immediate practical aims seems to be 10 get some background for the handling and questioning of priSOOCfS of war. The matter is treated (as} confidential in the sense thaI it must not reach the news-paper zone. Three of my colleagues and myself are selected to give this first course, and the major part seems to fall to me. I am look.ing forward nry much to this experience as I have dont similar work for the Austrian offICers' scbool in the years of our 'waf' with Hitler. It is a good thing, I believe, that under the necessity of war a little pressure may stan from the services that may reach the colleges; for the information which we give in such a course might, after all, be the common possession of aU college-graduates if properly instructed. 98

At this time, VoegeJin could not have known that he would be back at LSU for the fall semester. Thus, if this course really took place, it must have been taught either during the spring semester (there were still six weeks left) or right after it. Only two letters exist concerning the fall semester of 1942 from which one could speculate what Voegelin was teaching in the academic year 1942-43. In August he wrote to Harris about his plans: If you let me organize the course 125 and 126 according to my discretion I would suggest to go in the first semester to 1789, with the provision that one-half of the semester will cover the period from the begilUlings to the English Revolution and the second-half from King James to 1789. lbat would give more than 50-10 to American lbought, if you include Calvinism as an essential part of it. without neglecting the general sening. 1be second semester should treat the period from 1789 to the present. again with due accent on the American development. If you wish to adapt the tille to the contents, perhaps simply: European and American Political lhought to 1789,-from 1789 would be the ~t."

Four months later, Voegelin wrote to Parsons about his obligations: I have a seminar in political theory that meets once a week for an evening at my house with four registered students and about six or seven who come regularly withoul taking it for credit. The background of the students is thin. to put it mildly, but their intelligence loo and eagemess to learn is very pleasant.

The Department seemed to be satisfied with his work, as well. In the spring semester of 1943, Voegelin was leaching twelve credit hours and had enrolled a total of 89 students in his classes (from a total of 234 students in the department with a total faculty of two and a half people). Quanlitative1y, he is doing more than his part, and qualitatively, he is doing excellent teaching and is exerting a profound innuence upon the students who come into contact with him. Since he is teaching more than any other person in the: Department by

91

" lOll

Letler to Elliott, April 2. 1942. (Government Files). LeUer to Harris, August 27,1942. (Government Files). Letter to Parsons, December 23. 1942. (HI 28.12).

00042bJ~

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

81

anywhere from 33-1/3% to 300%, his departure would just about complete the wreckage of the Department. 101

According to data from the summer of 1943,102 Voegelin taught one part of the undergraduate American Government class (51), The Nature of the State /I (161: "The nature, elements, and attributes of the state; sovereignty and political obligation; the scope and limits of state action; and the theoretical sources of modem governmental institutions."), as well as an Honors Course (191). In the following years, Voegelin regularly taught the introductory classes in American Government (51 and 52, together with his colleagues), Totalitarian and Constillitional Governments (171 and 172), and Political Theory (181 and 182), always alternating the sections between the spring and fall semesters. Additional classes included the Honors Course (191) and a Methods Class (201). For the next semesters, the books list Voegelin's schedule as follows: • 1943-44, first quarter: 5 J; 172: Constitutional Government IJ ("An examination of the origins, nature and preconditions of modem constitutional government with special attention to British parliamentary institutions"); 182: Political Theory, European and American. ("A survey of the development of political thought from the Greeks to the present with special attention to the elements that have gone into the building of American political ideas"); 20 I: Methods and Materials ofResearch in Government ("lectures, readings, assigned problems"). • 1943-44, second quarter: 52; 171: Totalitarian Governments ("A study of the disintegration of parliamentary institutions in Italy and Germany, and the nature of the totalitarian regimes in these countries, Japan, and Rus· sia"); 181. • 1944-45,firstquarter:51; 171; 181; 191[1);201 (pro forma only). • 1944-45, seeond quarter: 52; 172; 182; 191 [1].'" • 1944-45, third quarter: 51; 173 (~ 172+171; Far East); 183 (~182+181); 191 [1). • 1945-46, first semester: 51: American National Government I, /I ("A survey of the principles, structure, and functions of the national government of the United States"); 171: Great Britain and Western Europe I ("A study 101

'"

10J

Letter from Harris to Dean Stephenson, March 3,1943. (Government Files). The used data are thc Schedule of Classes and thc Bulletin from the years Voegelin was teaching at LSU as well as exams and Voegclin's notes (HI 86.1, 86.4, 88.7, 88.8; for more information about exams, reading lists or course outlines see these sources). Thc sources sometimes provide differcnt information about Voegelin's classes and list classes that Voegelin taught in general but not necessarily in that particular year. If not otherwise indicated, the author thcrefore lislS the given data, but cannot prove for certain that Voegelin really taught those classes in those scmcstcrs. Class infonnation that is clearly questionable is marlced with "(1)..' "I also think that it is better for me to keep the American Government and let Highsaw have the Honors Course---for a change, you know-; I can keep better contact with the students when I have thcm in 51152. So, if it is all right with you, I keep rather both quarters of American Government:' (Lcttcr to Hams, July 31, 1944; Government Files)

000426Jb

82

•

ERIC VOEGEUN IN BATON ROUGE

of the origins, nature, and preconditions of constitutional government in western Europe; the constitution of Great Britain; the structure of the British Empire; recent constitutional development in Western Europe"); 181; 281: Seminar in Political Theory. 1945-46, second semester: 52: Elements of Political Science /, II ("A general introduction to the study of political science with emphasis upon the principles and forms of the state and government"); 172: Russia and Central and Eastern Europe II ("A study of political revolution in Central and Eastern Europe and in Russia; the disintegration of parliamentary institutions and the rise of totalitarianism; the constitution of the Soviet-Union; institutional development in Germany and Italy"); 174: China and Japan II ("The Chinese Revolution; the program of Sun Yat-Seni; the Kuomintang; the Chinese constitution; the opening of Japan; the constitution; Shintoism; present social and political structure"); 182; 282: Seminar in Political The-

ory. • • • • • • • • •

• •

\946-47, first semester: 5\; \8\; 20 \; 281. 1946-47, second semester: 52; \72; \74; \82; 282. 1947, summer: 5\; \72; \82. \947-48, frrstsemester: 51; \81; 281. \947-48, second semester: 52; \72; 174; 182; 282. 1948-49, firstsemester: 5\; 18\; 28\; \73. 1948-49, second semester: on sabbatical leave. \949-50, first semester: 51; \73; 18\ (SANDOZ); 281. 1949-50, second semester: 52; 172: Russia and Eastern Europe II ("A study of political revolution in Eastern Europe and in Russia; the disintegration of parliamentary institutions and the rise of totalitarianism; the constitution nf the Soviet-Union"); \82 (SANDOZ); 282. \950-5\, firstsemester: 5\; \72; \8\; 281.'" \950-5\, second semester: 52; \73 (SANDOZ); 182; 282.

104 In March 1951, Voegelin was consulted by a Mr. Donald Maclean about his course offering: "In your current Catalogue, which was sent to me recently, I notice a course marked J72-Russia and Eastern Europe. I am very anxious to learn whether this course aims to expose Communism-both Russian and International-for the vicious thing which it is, and prepares the student to fight against it in his daily life." (leiter from Maclean to Voegelin, March I, 1951; HI 88.7). Voegelin answered promptly: "The course is an objective scientific exposition of the subject indicated in its title. [... J No infonnation beyond what has been conveyed in the proceeding paragraphs can be given to you before you have identified yourself properly. 10 the present confused political situation it is impossible for us to know whether a letter of the type that you have sent us originates with a well intentioned. anxious citizen or with a adjunct provocator or perhaps an agent of the Soviet Union, who is fishing for infonnation. Any further communication from you which is not accompanied by an appropriate identificalion and testimonials from persons or organizations with a well known, reputable standing will be turned over to the F.B.I. for further treatment:' (Letter from Voegelin to Maclean, not dated; HI 88.7).

b0042636

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

•

83

1951, summer: 51 (daily); 172 (daily); 191: Reading Course ("individual

reading in specified field of government conferences, repons, and group discussions'l_ •

•

1951-52, fi"t semester: 51; 172; 181 (MICHELLI, 12 students); 281; 202: The Melhods ofthe Political and Social Sciences; with chairman (not mentioned in the Schedule of Classes). 1951-52, second semester: 52; 173; 182 (MICHELLI); 282; 62: Introduction to Politics II ("The purposes and foons of government, historical cycles

and courses of revolution, political forces and movements, and moral problems of the individual and the state with special emphasis on modem political problems"), with Fliess, Taylor (the Schedule of classes lists only Taylor); 202 [1].

In a letter to Baumgarten, Voegelin added about his coune load for that semester: Besides everything else, I am leaching a private seminar about epistemology ('En:enntnistheorie'), which goes from the Aristotelian subjects to quantwn physics because some physics students arc: anending the course, and this causes me a 101 of trouble. Addilionally, our Dean had !he wonderful idea of founding an Honors Colloquiwn in which I am responsible for the evenings on Plato and Confucius. l~

• •

•

• •

•

1952-53, fi"tsemester: 51; 172; 181; 281 (SANDOZ); 202 [?]. 1952-53, second semester: 52; 173; 182; 282 (SANDOZ); 202 [?]. 1953-54, first semester: 51; 172: Russia and the Soviet Empire I ("The

causes of communism in Europe and Russia; the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia; Russian Messianism; the Communist Revolution and the Comintem; the Constitution of the Soviet Union") (still called Russia and Europe in some sources); 181; 281; 202 [?]. 1953-54, second semester: 52; 173; 182; 282; 202 [?]. 1954-55, fi"t semester: 51; 172 (BARRY); 181; 281 (maybe 203 instead); 62 [?] (with Fliess) 1954-55, second semester: 161: Law in Ihe Modern Slate 11 ("The meaning

and objects of law; sources and growth of law; conception of rights and justice") (originaHy, Hams intended to teach it); 173 (BARRY); 182; 282 (maybe 202 instead); 62 [?) (with Fliess). • 1955-56, fi"t semester: 172; 181 (BARRY). • 1955-56, second semester: 182 (BARRY); 282. • 1956-57, first semester: sabbatical leave. • 1956-57, second semester: 172; 182; 282. • 1957-58, fi"t semester: 173; 181; 28\. Other sources also list the cou"es: 51; 52; 62; 161; 202; 173 for 1955-57, and 51; 161; 173 for 1957-59.

10' Letter 10 Baumgancn. April 21, 1952. (HI 7.) 7; translation by aUlhor).

84

ERIC VOEGELIN IN BATON ROUGE

Starting in 1954, Voegelin taught for four years a course on jurisprudence every spring semester. Even though it was mainly offered for law students, it can be assumed that it was listed as Government 161 (this would also confinn the enumeration aboveV 06 In the fall, law professor Pascal taught the second part of the class (Institutions of Law). Between 60 and 80 students were normally in these jurisprudence classes, and the class was compulsory for firstyear law students. In a lener to the Rockefeller Foundation, Voegelin summarized: The courst: has been a success in two respects: (I) The usual dodges of students to escape a ~, which they do not like, were not employed. The enrolllDall held up. And (2) the results in terms of interested panicipation and good grades can only be called excellent. (... ) Our grealest difficulty is the lack of an adequate textbook. 107

In his leave of absence in the fall semester of 1956, Voegelin worked on a book on jurisprudence (The Natllre of the Law) that was supposed to be used in his course and to be published. After Voegelin left LSU, this class was made optional and for students in their final year. According to Pascal, some of the other professors did not like these two classes by Voegelin and Pascal for being "too catholic." Pascal remembered Voegelin as always saying, "everyone who does not believe what the Roman Catholic Church teaches is a fool. nllll Voegelin knew about the problem, and he had written about it to Baumganen already in 1951: Now for an amusing side note: among the grown up protestants, an obvious anxiety can be fell due to the attracth'C'OeSS of catholicism. and this attraction mainly ties in the better philosophical education of the catholics. I am often suspected to be a Catholic myself, merely because I know something about philosophy and because I am acquainted with such atrocities as Aristotle and Tbomas very well. 109

According to one of his law students, Victor Sachse U1, Voegelin taught the law class in a different manner than his colleagues; he asked questions based on the material, liked discussions, gave interesting assignments, and had very little tolerance for ignorance. Often, the students were not prepared for the content of the classes because it was intellectually too challenging. Nevertheless, many students like Sachse, returned to attend Vocgelin's classes in the law school again, even though they were not required to. The topics Voegelin taught during any given semester often had to do with his own current research. Walters remembered: Whatever he was working on, he would simply come into class and he would read a manuscript, which didn't mean that he could give a lecture off the cuff, it just meant that

106 Letter from Harris to Voegelin, June 26, 1953. (HI 16.15). 101 Letter to Tbompson (Rf). Decembtt 12. 1955. (RF / RG 1.2/ Series 2005 / Box 531 / Folders 4538-4539). 101 Pascal to Publ, January 28, 2000. 109 Letter to Baumganen. July 10, 1951. (HI 7.17; translation by author).

~42838

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

85

be was bener organized. But, if someone asked a question, then he coold go ofT for ten or fifteen minutes. In other words, I'm saying that be didn't have to refer to his notes. As a maner of fact, I can remember that Voegelin would finish and then each week woold

read us one of the Walgreen lecnues before be wmlto Chicago and gave them. llo

4.2. Books

In his years in Baton Rouge, Voegelin wrote or began writing some of the most important books of his professional career: The New Science of PoUlics (published in 1952, NSP), Order ond History, Vol I-Ill (1956-57, OH), and The NalUre of Ihe Law (1991). Wissenschafi, PoUlik und Gnosis was published in 1959, when Voegelin was already living in Munich, Germany. One of the most extensive projects of all, which he also worked on during his Baton Rouge years, was published only posthumously in eight volumes between 1997 and 1999: His/ory ojPoliticolldeas (HPJ).'" The idea for this project occurred to Voegelin around 1937 and the outcome was intended to become "a textbook of moderate size." Soon, Voegelin realized that there was more to this project than just a little textbook of2oo pages. I actually had to work through the Iiteralure from the Greek beginnings to the present. That is what I did over lhe years. [...]1 could not deliver on time, becalL~ I WlIS ~iIl hu'ly acquiring knowledge of sources. and lhe more knowledge I acquired the faner the manuscript grew. But that was not all. In the course of the work it became obvious that the limitation imposed on a history of political ideas, the convention of having it begin with the Greek Classic philosophers and end up with some contemporary ideologies, was untenable. 112

Voegelin kept on working, studying sources, and writing for the next few years. In December 1942, he wrote to Talcott Parsons that he was about to fin· 110

III

ll2

Walters to Cooper, November 4, 1995. Thc lecture 'Moses: The Creator of History' of March 1955 (See: H13.3 and The Reveille. March 4.1955) is probably also an extract out of his &Clual wortc-v.'hat is today known as volume I of Order and History, Israel and Revelation. The nine parts of History of Political Ideas are published in the Collected Works series, vol· urnes 19·26: Vol. 1 Hellenism, Rome, and Early Christianity (CW 19). Vol. II The Middle Ages to Aquinas (CW 20), Vol. III The Later Middle Ages (CW 21), Vol. IV Renaissance and Reformation (CW 22), Vol. V Religion and the Rise of Modernity (CW 23), Vol. VI

Revolution and the New Science (CW 24), Vol. VII The New Order and LaSI Orientation (CW 25). Vol. VlII Crisis and the Apocalypse of Man (CW 26). To thc connection of the original nine parts of HislOry of Polilieol Ideas with the edited volumes of the Collected Works series and the original outline of Order and HislOry see Kromkowski 2000, 784. AR,62.

86

ERJC VOEGEUN IN BATON ROUGE

ish the Middle Ages. Exactly five years later, in December 1947. he wrote to George Rohrlich that the flf'St two volumes already were at the publishing house, hopefully to be followed by the third volume in the summer. II) Alfred Schuetz seemed to have been one of the people with whom Voegelin discussed his work on a regular basis: "An important development in my understanding of the problems that worried me throughout the 19405 and well into the writing of Order and History was marked by my correspondence with Alfred Schuetz on the problems of consciousness."ll. In 1944 he changed the publisher from McGraw-Hili 10 MacMillan, and the project grew into a three-volume college textbook of 1,500 pages. From 1944 to 1953, these three volumes grew further to approximately 4,450 pages. Of this work, Voegelin published individual chapters or parts of them during the 1940s and early 1950s: 'Siger the Brabant' (1944), 'Bakunin's Confession' (1946), 'Plato's Egyptian Myth' (1947), 'The Origins of Scientism' (1948), 'The Philosophy of Existence: Plato's Gorgias' (1949), 'The Fonnation of the

Marxian Revolutionary Idea' (1950), 'Machiavelli's Prince: Background and Fonnation' (1951), 'More's Utopia' (1951), and 'The World of Homer'

(1953).1l5 People who read the manuscript of HPJ were full of praise for the work. 116 Over the years, Voegelin was confronted with more and more difficulties in writing the manuscript. In his Autobiographical Reflections he remembered: My History of Political Ideas started from the conventional assumption that there are ideas, thai they have a history, and thai a history of political ideas would have to work its way from Classical politics up 10 the present. Under these assumptions, I humbly worked throogh the sources, and eventually a manuscript of several thousand pages was in existence. Still, the various misgivings that had arisen in the COWS( of the wort now crystallized into my understanding that a history of political ideas was a senseless undertalcing, incompatible with the present stale of science. Ideas turned out to be a secondary conceptual development [...).

11lese various occasions for becoming aware of the theoretical inadequacy of my conventional preconceptions about a history of ideas did not arise all at once and did not find immediate solutions. I would characterize the five years between 1945 and 1950 as a period of indecision, ifnot paralysis, in handling the problems that I saw but could nOi intellectually penetrate to my satisfaction. The work did not SIOp.ll1

Letters to Parsons, December 23, 1942 (HI 28.12) and Rohrlich, December 21, 1947 (HI 30.17). The publishing house obviously wanted 10 wait with the publishing for the complete woric. They never got it. II. A.R. 70. liS Listed according to SandozIHollweclc in Cw 19, If. 'BaJcunin's Confession' was also the topic of a lecture Voegelin delivered at an IRe meeting in November 1945. Another part of this work is From Enlightenment to Re'I'Olution, edited by John H. Hallowell in 1975. 116 See appendix AZ.4. 117 AR, 78, 64. III

r

2636

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

87

Finally, Voegelin abandoned this huge project, in conflict with its general theoretical (mis-)conception and deficiency: 'Ideas have no history, only experiences do.' This took place around the year 1954. By Voegelin, the continuous process of searching, revising, giving up, and recasting was never seen as a waste oftime: My work on the History of Political Ideas had oot been done in vain, because it had familiarized me with the historical sources. But now the reorganization of the materials under the aspect of experience and symbolization became necessary. Hence, I gave up the project of a History of Political Ideas and started my own work on Order and History. lIt

Although Voegelin had decided to give up on HPl, the editor.; of the Collected Works series decided to publish the script after the author's death. Sandoz and Hollweck explain this step in the 'General Introduction' to HPJ in the Collected Works series with the arguments that (I) Voegelin had published some of the articles himself aod that (2) the primary goal of the CW is to make as many of the author's writings as possible accessible to a larger public [...] Of Voegelin's unpublished work, the 'History' is, without doubt, of central imponance for an understanding not only of the author's own intellectual development but also of the fundamental theoretical problems thaI shaped his later work. llf

Voegelin mentioned the year 1951 as being an especially important point in time concerning his shift in focus and conception: "A breakthrough occurred on occasion of the Walgreen Lectures I delivered in Chicago in 1951. Here I '"~ [bid, 80 .

I :,

cw

19, I. In an e-mail to Arpad Szakolczai from May 26, 2000, Ellis Sandoz added: "Voegelin never intended to publish this after he turned the comer in the early 50s. He then mined it for some articles and for O&-H, (... ) Some of the harshest things be wrote (and we published!) never would have seen the light had he revised the work for publication. so much that we have is in the fonn of a first or at least preliminary draft and left like he wrote it (typed it!!) typos and all-[...} The author's own conception and intentions for a wide variety of reasons kept shifting, often on the question of publishability-first as an undergrad textbook, then and ultimately even as a standard treatise on the subject too big even for so-