<< Deepening Our Understanding of Citizenship

About Walter Berns

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

A scholar of political philosophy and constitutional law, Walter Berns has written extensively on American government and politics in both professional and popular journals. He is the John M. Olin University Professor Emeritus at Georgetown University and served as a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He has also taught at Louisiana State University, Yale University, Cornell University, Colgate University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Chicago. He earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in political science at the University of Chicago and has published many works on American government and society. His articles have also appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Commentary, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Berns served on the National Council on the Humanities from 1982 to 1988 and the Council of Scholars in the Library of Congress from 1981 to 1985. He was also a delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2005.

Experience

Professor Emeritus, 1994–present; John M. Olin University Professor, 1986–94; Professorial Lecturer, 1979–86, Georgetown University

Faculty, University of Chicago, 1984, 1989; University of Toronto, 1969–79; Colgate University, 1970; Cornell University, 1959–69; Yale University, 1956–59; Louisiana State University, 1953–56

Member, Judicial Fellows Commission, 1986–88

Member, National Council on the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1982–88

Consultant, Task Force on Judicial Selection, Twentieth Century Fund, 1988

Member, Board of Directors, Institute for Educational Affairs, 1980–88

Member, Joint Committee Project ’87, Joint Undertaking of the American Historical Association and American Political Science Association to Commemorate the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, 1987

Consultant, US Department of State, 1983–87

Lecturer, Phi Beta Kappa Society Lecture Series, 1985–86

Member, Council of Scholars, Library of Congress, 1981–85

Alternate US Representative, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 1983

Guggenheim Fellow, 1978–79

Advisory Board Member, National Institute of Law Enforcement, 1974–76

Chairman, Department of Government, Cornell University, 1963–67

Fulbright Fellow; Rockefeller Fellow, 1965–66

Lecturer, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, 1959

Carnegie Teaching Fellow, 1952–53

US Navy, 1941–45

Education

PhD, MA, University of Chicago

London School of Economics and Political Science

Reed College

BS, University of Iowa

Books

Lincoln at Two Hundred (2010)

Democracy and the Constitution (2006)

Making Patriots (2001)

After the People Vote: A Guide to the Electoral College (1992, 2004)

Taking the Constitution Seriously (1987)

In Defense of Liberal Democracy (1984)

After the People Vote: Steps in Choosing the President (1983)

For Capital Punishment: Crime and the Morality of the Death Penalty (1979, 1991)

The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy (1976)

Freedom, Virtue and the First Amendment (1957, 1969)

Selected Articles and Commentary

“In Memoriam: Robert A. Goldwin,” AEI Online, January 21, 2010

“Interrogations and Presidential Prerogative,” Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2009

“Why America Celebrates Lincoln,” Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2009

“The Case for Keeping the Electoral College,” Roll Call, April 3, 2008

“On George Kateb’s Patriotism,” Cato Unbound, March 12, 2008

“Religion and the Death Penalty,” Weekly Standard, February 4, 2008

“Sticks and Stones?” Commentary, June 1, 2005

“Recipes for Anarchy,” Washington Post, July 16, 2004

“The Insignificant Office,” National Review Online, July 9, 2004

“The Libertarian Dodge,” Claremont Review of Books, September 1, 2003

“The Perennial Trashing of Bourgeois Democracy,” Academic Questions, September 1, 2002

“Ancients and Moderns: The Emergence of Modern Constitutionalism,” Institute of United States Studies, March 2002

“From the Ashes, Patriotism Reborn,” Boston Globe, September 23, 2001

“Where Are the Death Penalty Critics Today?” Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2001

“Two-and-a-Half Cheers for the Electoral College,” Ashbrook Center, February 20, 2001

“Should the Current Electoral College System Be Preserved?” Congressional Digest, January 1, 2001 

“Revisiting States’ Rights Controversy at the Wrong Time, with Altered History,” Washington Times, October 15, 2000

“The Clear and Present Danger Test,” Journal of Supreme Court History, July 1, 2000

“Pornography Versus Democracy,” Society, September/October 1999

“Historians Spring an ‘October Surprise,’” Wall Street Journal, November 3, 1998

“My Days with Frieda Lawrence,” Commentary, August 1, 1998

“Covering Their Eyes with Parted Fingers,” New York Times, April 4, 1998

“In Our Own Image,” National Interest, April 1, 1998

“Why the Death Penalty Is Fair,” Wall Street Journal, January 9, 1998

“Clothes for Working Women—or Working Girls?” Wall Street Journal, October 27, 1997

“Proposals for Electoral College Reform,” House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, September 4, 1997

“Is There a Worldwide Conservative Crackup?” Weekly Standard, August 25, 1997

“Clinton Lays an Egg,” Weekly Standard, July 7, 1997

“Vengeance? Executing McVeigh Would Be Moral,” Washington Post, June 8, 1997

“Taking Virtue Seriously,” Public Interest, June 1, 1997

“Thorny Beliefs,” National Review, February 10, 1997

“On the Future of Conservatism,” Commentary, February 1, 1997

“Examining the Qualities That Make for Leadership,” Washington Times, September 22, 1996

“On Patriotism,” AEI Bradley Lecture Series, September 16, 1996

“Marriage Anyone?” First Things, April 1, 1996

“We Are the World?” National Review, February 26, 1996

“The Great Emancipator,” Commentary, January 1, 1996

“Third Party Candidates Face a High Hurdle in the Electoral College,” American Enterprise, January 1, 1996

“Defunding the Humanities,” The American Enterprise, May 1995

“Sue the Warden, Sue the Chef, Sue the Gardener . . . ,” Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1995

“Blue Movies,” Public Interest, April 1, 1995

“New Deal vs. Nine Old Men,” Wall Street Journal, March 16, 1995

“The Prattling Presidency,” Wall Street Journal, October 31, 1994

“When Men Are the Prey of Women,” Washington Times, October 25, 1994

“What D-Day Message from Clinton?” Washington Times, May 22, 1994

“Getting Away with Murder,” Commentary, April 1, 1994

“Dirty Words,” Public Interest, January 1, 1994

“Learning to Live with Sex and Violence,” National Review, November 1, 1993

“Art (?) in America – Leaving Town Alive,” Commentary, August 1, 1993

“New Start for Statehood?” Washington Times, May 24, 1993

“Let’s Hear It for the Electoral College,” Wall Street Journal, December 2, 1992

“Electoral College Quiz,” Washington Times, November 3, 1992

“In 272 Words,” Commentary, November 1, 1992

“On Hamilton and Popular Government,” Public Interest, September 1, 1992

“An Office That We Take More Seriously Today,” Washington Times, July 27, 1992

“On Madison and Majoritarianism,” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, January 1, 1992

“Natural Law, Natural Rights,” Washington Times, September 9, 1991

“Flag-Burning and Other Modes of Expression,” Commentary, October 1, 1989

“Public Trial by Public Jury,” Wall Street Journal, July 24, 1987

“Comment on Carl Rowan Article,” Maryland Law Review, Fall 1987

“Government by Lawyers and Judges,” Commentary, June 1, 1987

“The Constitution & Us,” Commentary, February 1987

“The Words According to Brennan,” Wall Street Journal, October 23, 1985

“Has the Burger Court Gone Too Far?” Commentary, October 1, 1984

“Third-World Ways in Cambridge USA,” Wall Street Journal, December 28, 1983

“Voting Rights and Wrongs,” Commentary, March 1, 1982

“Judicial Review and the Rights and Laws of Nature,” Supreme Court Review, 1982

“Let Me Call You Quota, Sweetheart,” Commentary, May 1, 1981

“Bonds of Cliche,” Commentary, September 1, 1980

“The Clerks’ Tale,” Commentary, March 1, 1980

“For Capital Punishment,” Harper’s Magazine, April 1979

“Free Speech and the Corporation,” National Legal Center for the Public Interest, 1979

“Thinking About the City,” Commentary, October 1, 1973

“The Constitution and the Migration of Slaves,” Yale Law Journal, December 1968

“Defending Politics,” Commentary, August 1, 1966

“Law and Behavioral Science,” Law and Contemporary Problems, Winter 1963

“Buck v. Bell: Due Process of Law?” Western Political Quarterly, December 1953