[1][2] Because of persecution during World War II, her family fled Europe via Japan to the US and finally to Canada in 1941, when she was thirteen.
Her mentor was the famous political theorist Carl Joachim Friedrich, who, she later recalled, only ever offered her one compliment: "Well, this isn't the usual thesis, but then I did not expect it to be.
A renowned teacher and advisor, many of Shklar's former students and colleagues contributed to a volume of essays, Liberalism without Illusions: Essays on Liberal Theory and the Political Vision of Judith N. Shklar (University of Chicago Press, 1996), edited by Bernard Yack.
Contributors include her celebrated former students Amy Gutmann, Patrick T. Riley, Nancy L. Rosenblum, Bernard Yack, Rogers Smith, Melissa Williams, and Tracy Strong.
[citation needed] Shklar's thought centered on two main ideas: cruelty as the worst evil and the "liberalism of fear."
While serving as the vice president of the APSA, she was also the visiting Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University (1983–1984).
[13] In 1985 the Harvard University chapter of Phi Beta Kappa awarded her its teaching prize, calling her "demanding, rewarding, forthright, fair, and reasonable, a model of intellectual and human qualities rarely combined.
"[14] Shklar's Ordinary Vices is referenced in the American television series The Good Place, serving as an inspiration for a well-ordered society.