The Soul of a Political Philosopher

At first sight, this is a very academic sort of book. It is about a college professor. Although it gives the best account I have read of the events in the life of its subject, Harry Jaffa, it is not mostly about events. Professor Jaffa was born in 1918 and bears the middle name “Victor.” Neither the victory in the First World War nor in the second comes into play. Jaffa lived through the Great Depression, the Korea War, and the Vietnam War. They come up, but in passing. With the rare exception of a Winston Churchill, the events in the lives of thinkers and writers are ordinary, filled not with battles but with books, not with odysseys except between the study and the classroom.