This week, Harvey Mansfield goes back to school. He arrived at Harvard as a freshman in 1949; he has taught there — government, political philosophy — since 1962. He knows from school. And there is always a certain anticipation, even a certain anxiety, when a new year begins.
Over the weekend, I podcasted with Professor Mansfield: here. I will have more to say about him in a piece soon. But, for now, a few lines concerning our podcast.
We talk about some fundamental things. (I think of the words of a song: “The fundamental things apply . . .) What is conservatism? What is liberalism? What are Right and Left? Things have been fuzzed up in recent years.
What is democracy? Why do some people recoil from the word, and the concept? What is equality? Why do some people recoil from that?
Then there is the question of manliness. This is an old, old question: What should a man be? What is a “real man”? The question has been in the air lately, in our country. Speaking at a gala, the chairman of the Claremont Institute said, “Trump is a manly man.” That sparked a few columns. In an ad for his daughter Liz, Dick Cheney said, “A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters.”
In 2006, Professor Mansfield wrote a book on just this subject. “Manliness,” it’s called. The hour of that book is now. Well, the hour of that book, that subject, is always.
Toward the end of our podcast, we talk about some of the thinkers who have meant the most to Professor Mansfield. Aristotle (to go with another Greek or two). Machiavelli (probably the thinker who has absorbed most of Mansfield’s attention). Tocqueville (well, maybe this Frenchman is tied). And Leo Strauss. “Someone who continues to instruct me and amaze me.”
There are hundreds, or thousands, of Mansfield students, Mansfield alumni, dotting our land (and beyond). They speak of their professor with striking admiration and gratitude. In this podcast, we get an hour of him, tuition-free. Which is nice, as Carl Spackler says in Caddyshack.