Inspirational Quotes by Hans Morgenthau (American Political Scientist)

Hans Joachim Morgenthau (1904–80) was a German-born American political scientist and historian. He was a leading analyst of the role of power in international politics. His writings reflect his antipathy toward liberalism and idealism, arguing that the influence of international law, norms, and organizations were minimal at best.

Born in an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Coburg, Germany, Morgenthau was educated at Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich. After postgraduate studies at the Institute for International Studies in Geneva, he was admitted to the bar in 1927 and served as acting president of the Labour Law Court in Frankfurt.

After brief teaching careers in Geneva and Madrid, he immigrated to the United States. He taught at Brooklyn College-New York 1937–39, University of Missouri-Kansas City 1939–43, University of Chicago 1943–71, City College of the City University-New York 1968–74, and New School for Social Research 1974–80.

Morgenthau made landmark contributions to international relations theory and the study of international law. Along with George F. Kennan and Reinhold Niebuhr, Morgenthau is considered one of the three leading American realists of the post-World War II era.

Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations (1948,) a respected survey of the “classical realist approach” to international politics, went through five editions during his lifetime. It profoundly influenced the field of international relations and the American foreign-policy establishment.

Morgenthau also wrote Scientific Man vs. Power Politics (1946,) In Defense of the National Interest (1951,) Dilemmas of Politics (1958,) The Purpose of American Politics (1960,) Politics in the Twentieth Century (1962,) and Truth and Power (1970.)

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