Walter Berns
Encyclopedia
Walter Berns is an American constitutional law
and political philosophy
professor
. He is currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
and a professor emeritus at Georgetown University
.
, where, as late as 1926, he was impressed by "Union soldiers in the [Memorial Day] parade feebly carrying the standard." He attended Reed College
and the General Course at the London School of Economics and Political Science—"where [he] learned little, other than to love London"—and received his bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. World War II intervened, and "there was no question but that [he] would serve in WW II." He served in the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1945. After the war, he lived and worked as a waiter in Taos, New Mexico
, where he befriended Frieda Lawrence. She persuaded him that he did not have a future as a writer, so Berns returned to academia. He studied for his Ph.D.
under Leo Strauss
at the University of Chicago
, where he also became lifelong friends with Herbert Storing
. He taught political philosophy at Louisiana State University
(1953–1956) and Yale University
(1956–1959). In 1959, he joined the government department at Cornell University
.
during these years. He was less than impressed by the attitudes of the faculty class at the time:
Berns was an active participant in the debates leading up to the takeover of the Cornell student union by black separatist activists in 1969. Berns and Bloom were among a small cohort of professors who argued for the primacy of the liberal arts
and for "academic freedom
" to disagree with the changes and "new orthodoxy" spearheaded by university president James A. Perkins
, such as the erosion of the core curriculum
and the concessions to demands for a black-only college.
Berns was targeted by protesters for his role in the campus debate; in his radio broadcast after taking over the student union
on April 19, 1969, Thomas W. Jones
included Berns in a list of those opposing the protesters: "Walter Berns is a racist." Once the student union takeover was settled in favor of the protesters, and after receiving personal threats, Berns resigned from Cornell and took up a position at the University of Toronto
.
During the guns-on-campus crisis at Cornell, then-professor Walter Berns fooled his students by reading them excerpts from Mussolini’s speeches. The students cheered — until they learned the identity of the author.
, the Founding, the death penalty, freedom of speech
, the Electoral College, and Abraham Lincoln
.
Berns has served on the Judicial Fellows Commission, the National Council on the Humanities
, the board of directors of the Institute for Educational Affairs, the Joint Undertaking of the American Historical Association
and American Political Science Association
to Commemorate the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, and the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress
.
. In 2005, Berns received the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush. Berns is an Episcopalian.
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
and political philosophy
Political philosophy
Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
. He is currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
and a professor emeritus at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
.
Early life and career
Berns was raised in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, where, as late as 1926, he was impressed by "Union soldiers in the [Memorial Day] parade feebly carrying the standard." He attended Reed College
Reed College
Reed College is a private, independent, liberal arts college located in southeast Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus located in Portland's Eastmoreland neighborhood, featuring architecture based on the Tudor-Gothic style, and a forested canyon wilderness...
and the General Course at the London School of Economics and Political Science—"where [he] learned little, other than to love London"—and received his bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa. World War II intervened, and "there was no question but that [he] would serve in WW II." He served in the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1945. After the war, he lived and worked as a waiter in Taos, New Mexico
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
, where he befriended Frieda Lawrence. She persuaded him that he did not have a future as a writer, so Berns returned to academia. He studied for his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
under Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he also became lifelong friends with Herbert Storing
Herbert Storing
Herbert J. Storing was a professor of Constitutional History and Law, the Federalist Papers, and, most notably, the Anti-Federalists. Prior to his death at the age of 49 he had completed most of his annotated seven volume collection of Anti-Federalist writings, The Complete Anti-Federalist, which...
. He taught political philosophy at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
(1953–1956) and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
(1956–1959). In 1959, he joined the government department at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
.
The upheaval at Cornell
Berns taught at Cornell from 1959 to 1969 and chaired the Department of Government from 1963 to 1967. He was a popular professor, "applauded after every lecture in their large courses, not merely after the last lecture of the semester, which was the normal student acknowledgment of a course well taught." Berns became friends with his faculty colleague Allan BloomAllan Bloom
Allan David Bloom was an American philosopher, classicist, and academic. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto, Yale University, École Normale Supérieure of Paris, and the University...
during these years. He was less than impressed by the attitudes of the faculty class at the time:
I recall a faculty party at Cornell, the day after the annual Fourth of July celebration at the university football stadium with fireworks. The wife of an economics professor, when asked if she had enjoyed the fireworks, replied, "Yes, but I could have done without all the flag-waving." This reminded me of that familiar old song—familiar in some circles, at least—"If you don't like my peaches, why do you shake my treeSitting on Top of the World"Sitting on Top of the World" is a folk-blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon, core members of the Mississippi Sheiks, a popular country blues band of the 1930s...
?"
Berns was an active participant in the debates leading up to the takeover of the Cornell student union by black separatist activists in 1969. Berns and Bloom were among a small cohort of professors who argued for the primacy of the liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
and for "academic freedom
Academic freedom
Academic freedom is the belief that the freedom of inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy, and that scholars should have freedom to teach or communicate ideas or facts without being targeted for repression, job loss, or imprisonment.Academic freedom is a...
" to disagree with the changes and "new orthodoxy" spearheaded by university president James A. Perkins
James A. Perkins
James A. Perkins was the seventh president of Cornell University. Born in 1911 in Philadelphia, Perkins graduated with high honors in 1934 from Swarthmore College and received a doctorate in political science from Princeton University in 1937...
, such as the erosion of the core curriculum
Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum was originally developed as the main curriculum used by Columbia University's Columbia College. It began in 1919 with "Contemporary Civilization," about the origins of western civilization. It became the framework for many similar educational models throughout the United States...
and the concessions to demands for a black-only college.
Berns was targeted by protesters for his role in the campus debate; in his radio broadcast after taking over the student union
Students' union
A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...
on April 19, 1969, Thomas W. Jones
Thomas W. Jones
Thomas W. Jones is senior partner of TWJ Capital LLC. Previously he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup Inc.'s Global Investment Management from 1999 to 2004. He joined Travelers Group as Vice Chairman in 1997 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Smith...
included Berns in a list of those opposing the protesters: "Walter Berns is a racist." Once the student union takeover was settled in favor of the protesters, and after receiving personal threats, Berns resigned from Cornell and took up a position at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
.
During the guns-on-campus crisis at Cornell, then-professor Walter Berns fooled his students by reading them excerpts from Mussolini’s speeches. The students cheered — until they learned the identity of the author.
Working in Washington
Berns taught at Toronto until 1979, at which point he moved to Washington to teach at Georgetown and conduct constitutional law research at AEI. His research interests at AEI have included the U.S. Constitution, constitution-making, political philosophy, patriotismPatriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
, the Founding, the death penalty, freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
, the Electoral College, and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
.
Berns has served on the Judicial Fellows Commission, the National Council on the Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
, the board of directors of the Institute for Educational Affairs, the Joint Undertaking of the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
and American Political Science Association
American Political Science Association
The American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...
to Commemorate the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, and the Council of Scholars of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
Personal
Berns has been married to Irene Berns since 1951; they live in Chevy Chase, MarylandChevy Chase, Maryland
Chevy Chase is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. In addition, a number of villages in the same area of Montgomery County include "Chevy Chase" in their names...
. In 2005, Berns received the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush. Berns is an Episcopalian.