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SCHOLARS &
FELLOWS
Walter Berns
Resident Scholar
RESOURCES
RESEARCH AREAS
- Political philosophy
- Constitutional law
- Legal issues
Contact
E-mail: wberns@aei.org
Phone: 202-862-5859
Fax: 202-862-7178
Biography
Walter Berns is also a professor emeritus at Georgetown University. A scholar of political philosophy and constitutional law, he has written extensively on American government and politics in both professional and popular journals. He is the author of numerous books on democracy, the Constitution, and patriotism. His most recent book is Democracy and the Constitution (AEI Press, 2006), a collection of essays. 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; Yale University, 1956-59; Louisiana State University, 1953-56
- Member, Judicial Fellows Commission, 1986-1988
- 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 U.S. Constitution, 1987
- Consultant, U.S. Department of State, 1983-87
- Lecturer, Phi Beta Kappa Society Lecture Series, 1985-86
- Member, Council of Scholars, Library of Congress, 1981-85
- Alternate U.S. Representative, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, 1983
- Guggenheim Fellow, 1978-79
- Advisory Board Member, National Institute of Law Enforcement, 1974-76
- Professor of Government, 1959-69; Chairman, Department of Government, 1963-67, Cornell University
- Fulbright Fellow; Rockefeller Fellow, 1965-66
- Lecturer, Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, 1959
- Carnegie Teaching Fellow, 1952-53
- U.S. Navy, 1941-45
Education
Ph.D., M.A., University of Chicago London School of Economics and Political Science Reed College B.S., University Iowa
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The Founders created an executive with substantial discretionary powers.
Our extraordinary interest in Lincoln has a lot to do with what he said and how he said it.
AEI Online
February 9, 2009
Who was Lincoln, why did he do what he did, and why should we remember him today?
TheElectoral Collegeis not perfect, but when it comes to proposed alternatives, slogans about the right to vote or the equal weight of votes are not enough.
The struggle for the presidential nomination in the Democratic Party is encouraging election reform.
Patriotism has been defined as love for a country, but it does not distinguish between pledging allegiance and loving or the type of government.
A world lacking in passion also lacks the necessary components for punishment.
Walter Berns argues that theU.S. Constitution has endured so well because it is written on the hearts of Americans.
No one, other than a fool or a knave, could discount the threat facing us today from militant Islam.
Washington Post
July 16, 2004
James Madison wouldhave prescribed for Iraq what he prescribed for us in 1787: a carefully contrived single-member-district electoral system.
With little to do, most vice presidents have spent their time in office doing little, and the republic is none the worse off for the little they did.
Academic Questions
September 1, 2002
Institute of United States Studies
January 1, 2002
AEI Online
October 1, 2001
The American flag represents more than free speech; it reminds us of those who fought before us to preserve our freedom.
Boston Globe
September 23, 2001
The connection between war and patriotism--or between war and the making of patriots--is evident, maybe even self-evident.
Wall Street Journal
June 11, 2001
The Timothy McVeigh case failed to provoke the usual outcries against the death penalty, or sympathy for the defendant.
Ashbrook Center
February 20, 2001
Congressional Digest
January 1, 2001
Washington Times
October 15, 2000
Walter Berns reviews Forrest McDonald's States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876.
Journal of Supreme Court History
January 1, 2000
Wall Street Journal
November 3, 1998
Berns discusses the Clinton impeachment in the context of history.
Bernsremembers the wife of authorD. H. Lawrence.
New York Times
April 4, 1998
The National Interest
April 1, 1998
Wall Street Journal
January 9, 1998
The death-penalty states have carved out from first-degree murder a narrow category of heinous killings and have rendered them alone subject to capital punishment.
Wall Street Journal
October 27, 1997
The Constitutiondoes notgive Congress the authority to prescribe what women may wear in the workplace; nor does it give Congress the authority to prescribe how men are to behave.
House Subcommittee on the Constitution
September 4, 1997
Testimony discussing the proposals for Electoral College reform.
The Weekly Standard
August 25, 1997
The Weekly Standard
July 7, 1997
Washington Post
June 8, 1997
The Public Interest
June 1, 1997
Review of Public Morality and Liberal Society.
National Review
February 10, 1997
Washington Times
September 22, 1996
Review of Hail to the Chief by Robert Dallek.
AEI Bradley Lecture Series
September 16, 1996
Patriotism means love of country and implies a readiness to sacrifice for it, to fight for it, perhaps even to give one’s life for it.
First Things
April 1, 1996
National Review
February 26, 1996
Review of Abraham Lincoln by David Herbert Donald.
Wall Street Journal
April 24, 1995
The Public Interest
April 1, 1995
Review of Hollywood Censored by Gregory Black.
Wall Street Journal
March 16, 1995
Review of The Supreme Court Reborn by Frank Leuchtenburg.
Wall Street Journal
October 31, 1994
Washington Times
October 25, 1994
Washington Times
May 22, 1994
The Public Interest
January 1, 1994
Review of Only Words by Catherine MacKinnon.
National Review
November 1, 1993
Review of Leaving Town Alive: Confessions of an Arts Warrior by John Frohnmayer.
Washington Times
May 24, 1993
Wall Street Journal
December 2, 1992
Washington Times
November 3, 1992
Review of Lincoln at Gettysburg by Garry Wills.
The Public Interest
September 1, 1992
Review of The Effective Republic by Harvey Flaumenhaft.
Washington Times
July 27, 1992
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
January 1, 1992
Washington Times
September 9, 1991
Wall Street Journal
January 8, 1991
Wall Street Journal
July 24, 1987
Maryland Law Review
January 1, 1987
Wall Street Journal
December 28, 1983
Dialogue
February 1, 1982
National Legal Center for the Public Interest
January 1, 1979
Yale Law Journal
January 1, 1970
Books [List all]
Democracy and the Constitution
AEI Press
September 1, 2006
In this book, Walter Berns addresses issues such as natural law, civil rights and states' rights, multiculturalism, patriotism, the First Amendment, and the roles of academic and religious institutions.
After the People Vote
AEI Press
August 13, 2004
The new edition of this popular guideexamines how the electoral college and postelection processes work andincludes a short history ofcontested elections.
Making Patriots
University of Chicago Press
May 1, 2001
How is patriotism inculcated in a system that, some argue, is founded on self-interest?
After the People Vote
This guide explains the electoral college, the process of presidential succession, and the interactions of the Constitution, federal and state statutes, and party and parliamentary rules.
Taking the Constitution Seriously
Madison Books (Paperback Reprint) and Simon & Schuster (Hardcover Original)
January 1, 1991
A concise and clear history of theConstitutionbrought down into modern, everyday life.
For Capital Punishment
University Press of America
January 1, 1991
The steady moderation of criminal law has not effected a corresponding moderation in criminal ways or improved the conditions under which men must live.
The First Amendment and the Future of American Democracy
Regnery Publishing (Paperback Reprint) and Basic Books (Hardcover Original)
September 1, 1985
A sharp, in-depth analysis of the First Amendment offering a unique interpretation of our basic freedoms and liberties.
In Defense of Liberal Democracy
The author carefully interprets liberal democracy's most basic doctrine: the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Freedom, Virtue, and the First Amendment
Greenwood Publishing Group
January 1, 1970
This book examines the First Amendment and issues of liberty and the American Founding.
Speeches and Testimony
Lincoln at Two Hundred
AEI Online
February 9, 2009
Who was Lincoln, why did he do what he did, and why should we remember him today?
Proposals for Electoral College Reform
House Subcommittee on the Constitution
September 4, 1997
Testimony discussing the proposals for Electoral College reform.
Patriotism
AEI Bradley Lecture Series
September 16, 1996
Patriotism means love of country and implies a readiness to sacrifice for it, to fight for it, perhaps even to give one’s life for it.
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