Name Willmoore Kendall | Role Writer | |
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Education University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (1940), University of Oxford Awards Guggenheim Fellowship for Social Sciences, US & Canada Books The basic symbols of the Ameri, John Locke And The Doctrine, The conservative affirmation, Willmoore Kendall contra mu, Oxford years Similar People Leo Strauss, George W Carey, Harry V Jaffa, George Grant, Eric Voegelin | ||
“Willmoore Kendall, Majority Rule, and the ACA of 2010” Christopher H. Owen
HAWKTalks Owen 3.26.19
Willmoore Kendall (1909 – June 30, 1967) was an American conservative writer and a professor of political philosophy.
Contents
- Willmoore Kendall Majority Rule and the ACA of 2010 Christopher H Owen
- HAWKTalks Owen 32619
- Early life and education
- Career
- Legacy
- References
Early life and education
Kendall was born in 1909 to a blind minister in Oklahoma. He learned to read at 2, graduated from high school at 13, from the University of Oklahoma at 18, and published his first book at 20. In 1932, he became a Rhodes scholar and studied at the University of Oxford.
Kendall became a Trotskyist and went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War. His experiences with the Spanish Republic led him to renounce his former communism. In 1940, he obtained a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois writing his dissertation upon John Locke on Majority Rule, under Francis Wilson. He served in the Office of Strategic Services in World War II and stayed on when it became the CIA, in 1947.
Career
Kendall joined the Yale University faculty in 1947, where he taught for 14 quarrelsome years until Yale paid him a handsome sum to resign. In 1961, he surrendered tenure and departed. Among his students was William F. Buckley, Jr. with whom he participated in the founding of National Review; as a senior editor, he constantly fought with the other editors (it is said that he was never on speaking terms with more than one person at a time). A friend, Professor Revilo P. Oliver, gave him credit with convincing him to enter political activism by writing for National Review.
Kendall later converted to Roman Catholicism, taught at the University of Dallas, was a founder of the politics program, and was co-founder of the doctoral program there. He stayed at that institution until he died of a heart attack, in 1967.
Legacy
Kendall is the model for the character Jesse Frank in S. Zion's 1990 novel Markers.