Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
2-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
History
Advisor
Richard Wolin
Committee Members
K.C. Johnson
David Waldstreicher
Subject Categories
Intellectual History | Political History | United States History
Keywords
Cold War, Intellectual History, Samuel P. Huntington, Grand Strategy, Harvard University, Carter Administration
Abstract
Samuel P. Huntington was one of the most influential political scientists of the 20th century, authoring a series of influential “concepts” and “paradigms” that have had tremendous impact on both scholarship and political practice. Historians have made great efforts to chart the anomalous, continental ideological influences and political motivations of Huntington’s close friends and Harvard colleagues Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, yet Huntington has not yet received an attempt at intellectual biography, a project necessary to understand this cohort best understood as “a trio” of grand strategists. Relying on newly available archival materials, this dissertation situates Huntington’s major academic writings within a life of driven political action, especially in connection with presidential campaigns and the Democratic Party. Starting with his youth and his academic mentors and teachers, it scaffolds Huntington’s topical focus according to the contingencies of American politics and comprehensively-expressed views on the purpose and shortcomings of political ideology in the Cold War. With this more complete biographical context, the thesis also responds to the increasingly common attribution of Huntington’s influence on the ideological soup of Donald Trump and contemporary American nationalism.
Recommended Citation
Fine, Todd, "American Machiavelli: Samuel P. Huntington the Author of Grand Strategy" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6172
