John Homer Schaar (July 7, 1928 – December 26, 2011), also known as Jack Schaar, was an American

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...

. He was a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...

. Schaar was born in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, and raised on a farm in a Lutheran family.

Early life and education

Schaar received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

, and

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degrees from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He taught political theory at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where his theory colleagues included

Sheldon Wolin Sheldon Sanford Wolin (; August 4, 1922 – October 21, 2015) was an American political theorist and writer on contemporary politics. A political theorist for fifty years, Wolin became Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princeton University, whe ...

, Norman Jacobson, Michael Rogin, and

Hanna Pitkin Hanna Fenichel Pitkin (born July 17, 1931)''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Hanna Fenichel Pitkin." Accessed March 5, 2008. is an American political theorist. She is best known for her seminal study ''The Concept of Representation'', publi ...

. In 1970 he moved to UC Santa Cruz. At Berkeley, he was a significant influence on the

Free Speech Movement The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a massive, long-lasting student protest which took place during the 1964–65 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The Movement was informally under the central leadership of B ...

of the 1960s. His closest students included the late

Wilson Carey McWilliams Wilson Carey McWilliams (2 September 1933 – 29 March 2005), son of Carey McWilliams, was a political scientist at Rutgers University. Biography McWilliams served in the 11th Airborne Division of the United States Army from 1955–1961, after ...

, Jeff Lustig, Douglas Lummis, Marge Frantz, J. Peter Euben, Frank Bardacke, Joshua Miller, and S. Paige Baty. He frequently taught at

Deep Springs College Deep Springs College (known simply as Deep Springs or DS) is a private, selective two-year college in Deep Springs, California. With the number of undergraduates restricted to 26, the college is one of the smallest institutions of higher educat ...

. His central political values included community, democracy, and political participation. He published articles on patriotism, equality, and authority. He advocated the decentralization of political and economic power.

Personal life

He was married to political theorist

, and together they resided in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Publications

* ''Loyalty in America'' (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1957). * ''Escape from Authority: The Perspectives of Erich Fromm'' (New York: Basic Books, 1961). * ''The Berkeley Rebellion and Beyond: Essays on Politics & Education in the Technological Society'', co-authored with

Sheldon S. Wolin Sheldon Sanford Wolin (; August 4, 1922 – October 21, 2015) was an American political theory, political theorist and writer on contemporary politics. A political theorist for fifty years, Wolin became Professor of Politics, Emeritus, at Princet ...

(New York: New York Review Book, 1970). * ''Legitimacy in the Modern State (collected essays)'' (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press, 1981). See especially the title essay and "The Case for Patriotism."

External links

What is Patriotism?
John Schaar et al., at ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

,'' July 15, 1991
Links
at ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Schaar, John 1928 births American political philosophers Deep Springs College faculty University of California, Santa Cruz faculty 2011 deaths