Johns Hopkins Magazine -- September 2000
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SEPTEMBER 2000
CONTENTS

AUTHOR'S NOTE

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SEEING RED

P U B L I C    P O L I C Y    &    I N T E R N A T I O N A L
A F F A I R S

Seeing Red
Author's Note

While working on the retrospective piece on Owen Lattimore, I came across a great deal of material that had to be left out-- despite the 8,000-word length of my article. Though Lattimore was a victim of circumstances, some of which he himself influenced, others who were only tangential to his case were also punished by the era. Graduate students who studied under Lattimore were branded and had difficulty getting jobs. In 1953, a young academic, Hopkins Assistant Professor Harvey Wheeler, who stood up for Lattimore by co-editing the pamphlet Lattimore, The Scholar, found himself on the wrong side of opinion in the Political Science Department that he had joined only recently. He would later recall in writings about the time how he was taken to lunch by his chairman and told to abandon his project or he would be turned down for tenure when his turn came up. He refused, and later said he was fired. In an attempt to verify the details of that event so long ago, we asked Hopkins archivist Jim Stimpert to search the archives. The only document found was a cryptic letter from then-president Detlev W. Bronk dated April 15, 1953. It was addressed to political science chair Karl Brent Swisher: "Dear Karl, Thank you for your letter of April 13 concerning Dr. Harvey Wheeler. I will see that your recommendation is put into effect. With cordial regards." There was no "recommendation" letter attached.

Time has gone on and, as usual, legend picks up where life leaves off. Wheeler went on to teach political science at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, to publish numerous academic articles (and a best-seller, Fail Safe), as well as co-found and edit the Journal of Social and Biological Structures, among other endeavors. He lives in California today, and is talking to a biographer about his life story.


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