I am grateful to my colleague, Professor Schaff, for his memorial post on my old teacher, Leonard Levy. I only had Dr. Levy for one course, Historical Foundations of the American Constitution, but there was no one more qualified to teach that course in the world. We read well over a hundred pages a day, and there was no written work. Our grade was solely determined by our answers in class. We started out with about 12 students, three from the Government Department. One was Steven Hayward, who has recently written books on Reagan and Churchill. The rest of the students were from the History Department.
Levy was magnificent and terrifying in the classroom. If he asked you
a question, you had better have an answer; and you had better be ready
to defend your answer. If you ever said anything slightly wobbly like,
"I think . . . " Levy would shout "I don't want to know what you
think. I want to know what the answer is!" By the end of the course, half the history students switched to the Education Department. The Government students, I am happy to report, stood our ground.
Levy was one of the great historians, and was also one of great principled civil libertarians. As Claremont Graduate School began to change in the 1980's, Levy became increasingly marginalized. The new regime at Claremont was vehemently hostile to the conservatives on campus, and regarded any liberal who did not share that hostility as a traitor. As it turned out, Levy had far more support from the conservatives than he did from the campus left.
We received this kind note from Cary Cady:
Jon Schaff:
Thanks for you post on Leonard Levy's death. His book "Original Intent and The Framers Constitution" ranks as one of my favorite books. I am a proud owner of a first edition that I purchased from a Half Price Books store while stranded in Madison, WI three years ago. Best damn $10 ever spent. I had never heard of the man, but was attracted by the title and was not disappointed. I believe I read half the book that night in my hotel room.
Your post made me pull my copy off of my bookshelf and I found 6 book marks in favorite passages.
The spine is starting to come apart from my constantly referring to it. What a great read! Tell Ken Blanchard that I'm am truly envious of him for having Levy as a professor. What a loss. RIP.
I will always remember Professor Levy fondly.
Recent Comments