Werner J. Dannhauser

Werner Joseph Dannhauser (May 1, 1929 – April 26, 2014)[1] was an American political philosophy professor and magazine editor.

A German-Jewish émigré, he became an expert on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and on Judaism and politics and was a longtime professor of government at Cornell University.

A protégé of Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago, Dannhauser had earlier been a writer and editor at Commentary magazine during the 1960s.

[6] In the mid-1950s, Dannhauser attended the University of Chicago as a graduate student in the Committee on Social Thought,[8] where he studied for his Ph.D. under Leo Strauss,[3] whom he had first heard speak at the New School in New York City.

[11] During several summers, he taught classes on poetry and drama at The Clearing Folk School in Door County, Wisconsin.

[16] (By one tale, Strauss once loaned him money to pay off a poker debt that was threatening to result in physical harm.

[17] His strong Jewish identity and knowledge of European intellectual history appealed to editor-in-chief Norman Podhoretz.

[2] Political arguments between Dannhauser and fellow editor Ted Solotaroff, especially over the Vietnam War – a U.S. military involvement that Dannhauser strongly favored – led to Solotaroff leaving the magazine, which in turn contributed to the magazine's change in ideological position.

[17] In another case, Dannhauser threatened to resign from the magazine unless a piece supporting aggressive U.S. intervention in the war was published.

[2] In common with many American Jews, Dannhauser celebrated Israel's victories in the Six-Day War of June 1967.

[17] He had played a significant role in shifting the magazine to a more conservative viewpoint, especially regarding Vietnam policy and objections to the excesses of the New Left.

"[24] This stance brought about negative-to-outraged reactions from professors and students in letters to The Cornell Daily Sun over the next several days, including ones which mentioned eminent women philosophers, and subsequent negative-to-sarcastically insulting rejoinders by Dannhauser.

[1] For the next number of years,[3] he taught as an adjunct professor at Michigan State University,[3] where one of his former students was a faculty member.

"[28] In 2008, a Festschrift entitled Reason, Faith, and Politics: Essays in Honor of Werner J. Dannhauser was published by Lexington Books.